Minor things that bother you

[Scott5114]

Minor major annoyance: webpages with ads that load as you scroll down the page, causing the text to "jump" up and down as you're trying to read it. I do have adblocker, but many sites are now requring you to whitelist them and allow ads on their site.

Usually, I will use the adblocker to block the whitelist box. If that still doesn't work, I'll turn off JavaScript with the YesScript2 Firefox extension. If the browser executes no code from the site, the box can't spawn.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Minor major annoyance: webpages with ads that load as you scroll down the page, causing the text to "jump" up and down as you're trying to read it. I do have adblocker, but many sites are now requring you to whitelist them and allow ads on their site.

to add to this: webpages that 'autoplay' videos and such. i have decent internet at home now, but i would rather that bandwidth be used for actual content rather than junk-enhancement pill ads.

[kphoger]

SOLVED:  Every few months, this happens.  When I pass my mouse pointer over a program button on my Windows taskbar, the name of the program pops up and then sticks there for a few seconds.  This is annoying for me, because I have my taskbar in vertical orientation, such that my pointer passes over the taskbar whenever I move it from one monitor to the other.  Then the program name is blocking a small portion of my screen for a few seconds.

The solution is this:
  1.  Hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete, then choose the Task Manager.
  2.  Find 'Windows Explorer' in the Processes list.
  3.  Right-click and choose 'Restart'.

[J N Winkler]

Minor major annoyance: webpages with ads that load as you scroll down the page, causing the text to "jump" up and down as you're trying to read it. I do have adblocker, but many sites are now requiring you to whitelist them and allow ads on their site.

Usually, I will use the adblocker to block the whitelist box. If that still doesn't work, I'll turn off JavaScript with the YesScript2 Firefox extension. If the browser executes no code from the site, the box can't spawn.

I basically don't use an adblocker anymore, because from my perspective the real problem is having to interact with the whitelist box, not the ads, and sites now almost invariably run JavaScript code that is designed to detect the presence of working adblockers.  Most still do not check whether third-party ads actually load, so an ad-blocking HOSTS file (which forces localhost loopback for known ad servers) still works well to block ads.

There is a spectrum of commercial strategies in play:  allowing free incognito loads, allowing payload retrieval but with JavaScript to hang a "Subscribe to see this" screen over the content, using JavaScript to load the payload so that meaningful content is almost impossible to see unless the ad delivery mechanism is working, and not allowing article page loads at all unless the user supplies a login cookie.  I think the bottom line is that one has to pay somewhere in order to support investigative journalism that serves as a check on large corporations and the government.

Though I find it more comfortable to read in my easy chair, I now make an effort not to visit ad-supported sites on my Android tablet, simply because the ad infrastructure taxes it more and I do not think I have the admin rights required to install an ad-blocking HOSTS file.  (When I have looked cursorily into the possibility, I've gotten the impression I need the Android developers' toolkit to "push" the HOSTS file onto the OS, and it requires admin rights to install said kit.)

SOLVED:  Every few months, this happens.  When I pass my mouse pointer over a program button on my Windows taskbar, the name of the program pops up and then sticks there for a few seconds.  This is annoying for me, because I have my taskbar in vertical orientation, such that my pointer passes over the taskbar whenever I move it from one monitor to the other.  Then the program name is blocking a small portion of my screen for a few seconds.

The solution is this:
  1.  Hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete, then choose the Task Manager.
  2.  Find 'Windows Explorer' in the Processes list.
  3.  Right-click and choose 'Restart'.

This sounds like a screen-drawing bug that comes into play when a Windows session goes stale.  Have you tried forcing a full screen redraw (e.g., WinKey + D for "desktop" to minimize everything) to get rid of hover boxes that don't time out?

[kphoger]

Have you tried forcing a full screen redraw (e.g., WinKey + D for "desktop" to minimize everything) to get rid of hover boxes that don't time out?

I do that multiple times every day anyway, just as a convenient way to minimize all my windows at once, so it definitely isn't a solution to the problem.  At least I now know an actual solution.

[kurumi]

People attending concerts who start clapping in rhythm.

Harry Connick famously "fixed" a crowd clapping on 1 and 3 (considered worse than on 2 and 4, but both are bad) by inserting a 5/4 measure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI-CU2VTVic

But it's better not to clap.

(Another annoyance: I stopped watching Letterman when the audience would applaud for 15 seconds after every joke, bad or good)

[kphoger]

Have you tried forcing a full screen redraw (e.g., WinKey + D for "desktop" to minimize everything) to get rid of hover boxes that don't time out?

I do that multiple times every day anyway, just as a convenient way to minimize all my windows at once, so it definitely isn't a solution to the problem.  At least I now know an actual solution.

Couldn't post this image earlier, because...  NEW minor thing that bothers me:  Apparently, the VPN that I use to access Charter Communication's database blocks Flickr.  It means I can't see Flickr images posted on this forum, nor can I upload my own photo to the site.  I don't think it used to be a problem, so maybe it was recently added to their list.

Anyway, here is what my taskbar usually looks like.  You can see why WinKey+D is a welcome shortcut.

[abefroman329]

People attending concerts who start clapping in rhythm.

Harry Connick famously "fixed" a crowd clapping on 1 and 3 (considered worse than on 2 and 4, but both are bad) by inserting a 5/4 measure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI-CU2VTVic

But it's better not to clap.

(Another annoyance: I stopped watching Letterman when the audience would applaud for 15 seconds after every joke, bad or good)

I heard Penn Jillette talking about that on his podcast last year, and he mentioned a similar moment with another performer, but I can't remember who it was.

[kphoger]

But it's better not to clap.

It's especially annoying in a large concert hall.  Because sound travels relatively slowly, the audience hears the beat slightly after it actually happens.  So, if the audience claps to the beat, then they're actually behind the beat.  Then that same lag happens when the band hears the clapping.  Therefore, if the room is large enough, the band might actually be hearing the audience clap a third of a beat after they've already played the corresponding note.  It gets really hard for a musician to keep time that way.

[Scott5114]

The only thing you should clap in time to is the Radetzky March.

[J N Winkler]

Have you tried forcing a full screen redraw (e.g., WinKey + D for "desktop" to minimize everything) to get rid of hover boxes that don't time out?

I do that multiple times every day anyway, just as a convenient way to minimize all my windows at once, so it definitely isn't a solution to the problem.  At least I now know an actual solution.

It is good to have one that is known to work.  I asked about WinKey + D because, with older versions of Windows, I found it was helpful to have less drastic solutions (or even to tolerate the drawing problem) because of the back-end costs of restarting the shell.  The most annoying of these was the complete refusal of the file chooser to update file listings after rename/copy/move/delete operations.  A few times I actually restarted the computer instead, because it was just not worth it to try organizing files if I was going to have to hit F5 after every single thing.

That's quite a busy taskbar!

[wanderer2575]

The only thing you should clap in time to is the Radetzky March.

[J N Winkler]

Computer-related minor thing:  "We tried to send you this email as HTML (words and pictures) but it wasn't possible."  My reaction:  I read email in plain text as a security measure, so why aren't you cooperating?

[kkt]

Computer-related minor thing:  "We tried to send you this email as HTML (words and pictures) but it wasn't possible."  My reaction:  I read email in plain text as a security measure, so why aren't you cooperating?

Yes.  Plain text is more secure and will render pretty much anywhere.

[kphoger]

My work e-mail signature is an image.  Every so often, I run across someone whose e-mail settings cause it to be added to their reply as an attachment.  So I open the attachment, thinking it must be pertinent to their reply, only to find out it's my own e-mail signature.

[Scott5114]

You probably shouldn't have your email signature be an image if you have any say in the matter–aside from people who have their email to load plain-text only, any textual content in it would be inaccessible to anyone who uses a screen reader or touch bar to read your email.

[ZLoth]

Computer-related minor thing:  "We tried to send you this email as HTML (words and pictures) but it wasn't possible."  My reaction:  I read email in plain text as a security measure, so why aren't you cooperating?

I gave up on the "plain text" thing YEARS ago, and this is from someone who been utilizing the Internet since he used a dial-up modem connecting to a Unix box since 1989. I understand where you are coming from since initially, the HTML /Rich Text Format emails initially was used to send out email with too much cuteness and fluff which, in turn, increased the size of the email message from 2k in size to 50k... which can be problematic on 28.8k connection or a 2G connection. Having said that, since I'm dealing with both external customers and engineers, and some of this requires that I highlight options in bold when providing step by step directions including embedded images.

You probably shouldn't have your email signature be an image if you have any say in the matter–aside from people who have their email to load plain-text only, any textual content in it would be inaccessible to anyone who uses a screen reader or touch bar to read your email.

Thankfully, my email signature is image-free, although for readability reasons, I do use HTML to format the text and put all of the required information including my manager contact information and my working hours with time zone with a clickable link to a online clock showing what time it currently is where I'm located (because, for some folks, "time conversion is hard"). I've lost count as to how many times I went into the attachments of a case and had to remove three different versions of an image included with a signature.

My gripes with email:

• It was designed and implemented at a time when you could really trust each other on the Internet. Sadly, that time disappeared over 25 years ago.
• Small businesses whose email domain ends in @hotmail.com, @gmail.com, @icloud.com, @outlook.com, @yahoo.com, or the dreaded @aol.com address. Look, I get why you want a cheap yet permanent email address. However, I see those domains as "disposable email accounts", and it gives me the impression that you are a unreliable fly-by-night operation and "too cheap to care about me as a customer", thus your card promptly gets filed into the recycle bin. It's very cheap to register and retain a domain name and attach it to a email service. Heck, I have nohootsgiven.com as one of my domain names (but no email is attached to that domain).
• Spammers and phishers. They are the lowest of low lifes, and even pond scum refuse to be associated with them. They have converted email from "useful communications tool" to "junk mail heaven", and one of my domain names has been long been contaminated by them because they thought it would be good to use that as a return email address.

[jeffandnicole]

• Small businesses whose email domain ends in @hotmail.com, @gmail.com, @icloud.com, @outlook.com, @yahoo.com, or the dreaded @aol.com address. Look, I get why you want a cheap yet permanent email address. However, I see those domains as "disposable email accounts", and it gives me the impression that you are a unreliable fly-by-night operation and "too cheap to care about me as a customer", thus your card promptly gets filed into the recycle bin. It's very cheap to register and retain a domain name and attach it to a email service. Heck, I have nohootsgiven.com as one of my domain names (but no email is attached to that domain).

I get your point here, but don't write off small businesses due to the email address. Small businesses have a number of small ticket items to consider...and those small ticket items add up to a lot of money. They can't implement everything few potential random customers may care about. And even if a small business got a personalized domain name, they probably don't have the technical expertise to generate emails using that address. There may be an additonal expense to do so to have the domain name hosted. And if they overlook renewing the subscription, suddenly their account is possibly lost.

[kphoger]

You probably shouldn't have your email signature be an image if you have any say in the matter–aside from people who have their email to load plain-text only, any textual content in it would be inaccessible to anyone who uses a screen reader or touch bar to read your email.

I don't have a say.  But the only non-text parts of my sig are (1) my name, (2) my title, (3) the name and address of the company, (4) the company phone number and fax number, and (5) my e-mail address.  Well, I don't care if they know my name, my title and the name of the company are in my e-mail address itself, I don't care if they know our address, and nobody calls me or faxes me for anything anyway.

I did get away with editing the image file that was created for me, in order to satisfy my anal-retentive need for the vertical bars (pipe symbols) in two separate lines of text to line up.  I then connected them in order to make it one vertical line.  I suspect nobody even noticed my alteration–except the co-worker at the next desk over, who is similarly anal-retentive about such things...

[ZLoth]

• Small businesses whose email domain ends in @hotmail.com, @gmail.com, @icloud.com, @outlook.com, @yahoo.com, or the dreaded @aol.com address. Look, I get why you want a cheap yet permanent email address. However, I see those domains as "disposable email accounts", and it gives me the impression that you are a unreliable fly-by-night operation and "too cheap to care about me as a customer", thus your card promptly gets filed into the recycle bin. It's very cheap to register and retain a domain name and attach it to a email service. Heck, I have nohootsgiven.com as one of my domain names (but no email is attached to that domain).

I get your point here, but don't write off small businesses due to the email address. Small businesses have a number of small ticket items to consider...and those small ticket items add up to a lot of money. They can't implement everything few potential random customers may care about. And even if a small business got a personalized domain name, they probably don't have the technical expertise to generate emails using that address. There may be an additonal expense to do so to have the domain name hosted. And if they overlook renewing the subscription, suddenly their account is possibly lost.

I've worked with small business when I was younger, and you need to be "smart" with your IT to keep your costs down. There is a difference between the "cheap" solution and the "frugal" solution. I've had too many situations where I had to "clean up" the mess months after the implementation of the "cheap" solution, and then arguing about why the cleanup bill is so high. Backups of their computer, especially their computer that handles their accounting information, is critical. You can back up easily online for $7 per month, which is much cheaper than shipping a crashed hard drive and praying for data recovery. Try explaining to the IRS or the California Franchise Tax Board why you are unable to submit your business tax returns because your laptop is missing. Thank goodness between the time I stopped helping small business IT and now, there are now cloud-based accounting solutions.

[Scott5114]

You probably shouldn't have your email signature be an image if you have any say in the matter–aside from people who have their email to load plain-text only, any textual content in it would be inaccessible to anyone who uses a screen reader or touch bar to read your email.

I don't have a say.  But the only non-text parts of my sig are (1) my name, (2) my title, (3) the name and address of the company, (4) the company phone number and fax number, and (5) my e-mail address.  Well, I don't care if they know my name, my title and the name of the company are in my e-mail address itself, I don't care if they know our address, and nobody calls me or faxes me for anything anyway.

I did get away with editing the image file that was created for me, in order to satisfy my anal-retentive need for the vertical bars (pipe symbols) in two separate lines of text to line up.  I then connected them in order to make it one vertical line.  I suspect nobody even noticed my alteration–except the co-worker at the next desk over, who is similarly anal-retentive about such things...

If you ever want to cause problems on purpose, casually mention to someone in a suit that the company would probably lose an ADA lawsuit because of that policy...

• Small businesses whose email domain ends in @hotmail.com, @gmail.com, @icloud.com, @outlook.com, @yahoo.com, or the dreaded @aol.com address. Look, I get why you want a cheap yet permanent email address. However, I see those domains as "disposable email accounts", and it gives me the impression that you are a unreliable fly-by-night operation and "too cheap to care about me as a customer", thus your card promptly gets filed into the recycle bin. It's very cheap to register and retain a domain name and attach it to a email service. Heck, I have nohootsgiven.com as one of my domain names (but no email is attached to that domain).

I get your point here, but don't write off small businesses due to the email address. Small businesses have a number of small ticket items to consider...and those small ticket items add up to a lot of money. They can't implement everything few potential random customers may care about. And even if a small business got a personalized domain name, they probably don't have the technical expertise to generate emails using that address. There may be an additonal expense to do so to have the domain name hosted. And if they overlook renewing the subscription, suddenly their account is possibly lost.

Yeah, the process of linking an email to a domain is not hard per se, but it does have a lot of steps. I'm generally pretty technically-inclined, and the first time I did it, it took a little bit of tinkering before I understood what I was doing. Good luck explaining it to someone who only has a tenuous concept of what a "domain name" is. Watch their eyes glaze over when you say "MX record".

[kphoger]

If you ever want to cause problems on purpose, casually mention to someone in a suit that the company would probably lose an ADA lawsuit because of that policy...

Why?  Are company e-mails required to have all that information included?  Couldn't I just have no sig at all?  Plenty of people do.

In other words, how is my little sig card image any different than, say, a 49ers logo?

[skluth]

The only thing you should clap in time to is the Radetzky March.

I will continue to Stomp, Stomp, Clap to We Will Rock You until I die

[Scott5114]

If you ever want to cause problems on purpose, casually mention to someone in a suit that the company would probably lose an ADA lawsuit because of that policy...

Why?  Are company e-mails required to have all that information included?  Couldn't I just have no sig at all?  Plenty of people do.

In other words, how is my little sig card image any different than, say, a 49ers logo?

Information that could help complete a transaction (yes, your company's processes don't use that information, but it could be perceived to be of value by the customer for reasons nobody else understands) is being provided to non-disabled users in a format that disabled users can't access. That is a form of discrimination. If no sig is provided, nobody gets any information, so there is no discrimination. And a 49ers logo going missing probably isn't going to impede the customer from completing their transaction, so it's fine if they don't get that.

Now, could they just get the relevant information in some other way? Yeah, probably. So is it likely to materially negatively impact a disabled customer? Eh, it might annoy them a bit because they have to Google it or get it off the company website, or have an abled friend read the image to them. The main reason this becomes relevant is if someone has an ADA claim to a more serious issue. Then, the lawyer for the plaintiff could say "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you see, Company X is so committed to discriminating against the disabled that they don't even allow their employees to write their email signatures in a way that they might be accessible to the blind..."

In any event, the reason why I said "if you want to cause problems on purpose" is that the stars would have to align for this to be an actual issue, but once you bring it up to a management type, you'll probably get to see them wearing a different pair of trousers for the rest of the day.

[hbelkins]

I downloaded various of the "roadgeek" fonts for my work computer and used them in my work email signature for years. Of course, they don't render properly on the recipient's machine unless they have those fonts installed. So I tried to design a signature graphic using the fonts, but it looked awful, and didn't always render properly, so I gave up.

A number of people have little clickable images in their sigs (Facebook, Twitter, various Web sites, etc.) and no one has said anything to them about issues.

Of course, there are a whole lot of people I work with that don't have signatures at all.