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AKICOLJ -- computer interface
Feb. 23rd, 2006 03:05 pmMy employers just replaced the computer I work with. That has vaguely reassuring implications about them valuing my ability to work effectively, and their expectations that I will continue to work here. A frightening and disturbing meeting with my boss last month made me suspect a setup to fire me for incompetence and character flaws.
So this new computer is attached to the same monitor. Why does everything look different? Why is everything brighter? Why do images *flicker*, at 60-70 cycles, so I can see it but don't have a chance of convincing most people with normal vision that I'm not imagining it? And how can I make it stop?
I am editing a document in MS Word. I want to take the mistakes out. I do not want to underline them, or put them in red type, or add a marginal note indicating when they were modified. I want them GONE. I want additions or changes in the same plain font as the original text. (I only want to use red for lines like "Lock out power supply before opening gearbox!") I want to turn off the "Track Changes" feature in MS Word. According to Microsoft Word Help, "When you turn off change tracking, TRK is dimmed." I was hoping for more functional kind of "off" than just dimming one of the many indicators of the damn thing, if anyone knows how to achieve it.
For all that, it's still more convenient to use this computer than to go home. My computer at home is missing the space bar, which limits my typing. It's not that I can't type, or even that I can't type spaces. It's just that hitting "space" means hitting a circle, about 1/4" across, instead of hitting a bar more than 3" across. I will eventually upgrade my home computer (with "eventually" likely falling in the next week, considering my addiction to online chat), but it's awkward for the time being.
So this new computer is attached to the same monitor. Why does everything look different? Why is everything brighter? Why do images *flicker*, at 60-70 cycles, so I can see it but don't have a chance of convincing most people with normal vision that I'm not imagining it? And how can I make it stop?
I am editing a document in MS Word. I want to take the mistakes out. I do not want to underline them, or put them in red type, or add a marginal note indicating when they were modified. I want them GONE. I want additions or changes in the same plain font as the original text. (I only want to use red for lines like "Lock out power supply before opening gearbox!") I want to turn off the "Track Changes" feature in MS Word. According to Microsoft Word Help, "When you turn off change tracking, TRK is dimmed." I was hoping for more functional kind of "off" than just dimming one of the many indicators of the damn thing, if anyone knows how to achieve it.
For all that, it's still more convenient to use this computer than to go home. My computer at home is missing the space bar, which limits my typing. It's not that I can't type, or even that I can't type spaces. It's just that hitting "space" means hitting a circle, about 1/4" across, instead of hitting a bar more than 3" across. I will eventually upgrade my home computer (with "eventually" likely falling in the next week, considering my addiction to online chat), but it's awkward for the time being.
