Linus is brilliant. He is funny. Most days I really agree with anything he has to say.
However, he has butted heads with people in the past. Perhaps this is just human nature and unavoidable from time to time. Linus isn't perfect, nor always right. I thought he was really unfair to Con Kolivas when he drove Con away.
Being smarter is a big factor in programming well. Being obviously smarter than those around you is, well, a major cause of huge ego syndrome.
Don't you get a swollen head when you walk amongst dullards? Every time I see somebody pushing at the 'pull' on a door, I feel my disdain for others rising. When I stand behind a dunce in line, and hear him ask how many eggs in a dozen, I grow more sure of my position among the intellectual greats. When a waiter is unable to figure sums on his pad to give me a total, that I might reimburse him fairly for his service, I scoff at the fools that populate this world. In fact, in every day, in every way, the imbeciles I walk around cause my ego to grow nigh unto titanic proportions, certain I must be nearly akin to God Himself in my intellectual powers.
And I can only program in Basic. Imagine those towers of mind that must be a C programmer!
Don't let your head swell so much you can't get through the door.
We all have these moments, I call them moron moments, where we will do truly stupid things.
Using myself as an example: I have a (Tested) IQ of 151, and just this morning, I found myself pulling on a door clearly marked Push.
That's not necessarily a correlation with intelligence, though. I can't quote sources at the moment (don't feel like looking them back up), but there's a strong argument that a good portion of the IQ test involves things that are really *knowledge*, not intelligence.
If true, that would explain all the correlations you mention without requiring the IQ test to actually be correlated with *intelligence*.
The ability to score well on a given test is not NECESSARILY the ONLY indicator of intellect. Human minds are complex things. It would be impossible to create even the largest battery of tests to truly, fully measure their capabilities.
I still think it's complete bunk. Have you *taken* the test? Hell, there are parts on the test that measure hand-eye coordination more than anything else. Hope you didn't have enough coffee to make your hand shake that day...
I agree that it's not the ONLY indicator of intelligence, but what im saying is that the scores are not bogus, an IQ test is adjusted so most people can score 100. From that you can reason about something.
For example if I want to draw a formula on a graph, how would I represent it? Is it going to be human readable? I could gather 100 people and see if they understand it, I would draw it in such a way such that most people can understand it. And that's an indicator of how people understand graphs so I can
> I found myself pulling on a door clearly marked Push.
That is actually just an UI bug in the door. If you want people to push a door, you should use a handle that is like a plate, where you can easily put your hand against and push it. If you want people to pull the door open, you need to use vertical rod as a handle, where people can easily grab on to pull it. With this very small change, you don't even need to push/pull texts on the doors.
Also, doors should be always pulled when you go in and pushed when you go out. That makes exiting the building easier in case of emergency (people don't rush to the door and jam it, preventing anyone from pulling it open.) and also when people are trying to get in and out at the same time, the person outside is more capable of keeping the door open for the person going out (it is better that people first get out, before new people get in, because inside there is a limited space, while outside contains usually a lot more room). Also outside usually contains more room for pulling, while the inside often has a wall that limits the space for pulling, especially if you want to keep the door open for someone else.
That is awesome, and yet the/. of 2009 is so full of jealous pseudo-intellectuals that yours and most other insightful posts will likely be downmodded.
He's obviously read "Psychology of Everyday Things" (later reprinted as "Design of..."), where this door UI issue is discussed in several case studies. "POET" is a classic must-read for anyone that designs anything that anyone might be expected to use.
Well said. About the only counterpoint is that a door which opens outward will tend to have hinges on the outside, making illegal entry easier.
Where I live, commercial establishments usually have outward opening doors for the safety of the large number of people that might need to exit in an emergency; whereas residential doors will have inward opening doors so that the hinges are not exposed.
Where I live, commercial establishments usually have outward opening doors for the safety of the large number of people that might need to exit in an emergency; whereas residential doors will have inward opening doors so that the hinges are not exposed.
I believe there's a federal law to build public buildings doors so that they open outwards because of the fire in Chicago theater from the early 20th century when lots of people died jammed at the entrance/exit doors trying to get out...
Late, but hey: Also, a house door opening outwards is good for smacking guests in the face, who tend to be waiting close by. And perhaps passers-by, in case of appartments.
Also, doors should be always pulled when you go in and pushed when you go out. That makes exiting the building easier in case of emergency (people don't rush to the door and jam it, preventing anyone from pulling it open.) and also when people are trying to get in and out at the same time, the person outside is more capable of keeping the door open for the person going out (it is better that people first get out, before new people get in, because inside there is a limited space, while outside contains usually a lot more room). Also outside usually contains more room for pulling, while the inside often has a wall that limits the space for pulling, especially if you want to keep the door open for someone else.
Your door would suffer from issues if installed in an environment where it snows a lot.
Also, doors should be always pulled when you go in and pushed when you go out.
I *absolutely* agree with you when it comes to many types of doors, especially public restroom doors -- why, in the devil's briefcase, do most public restrooms have doors that you have to pull when your hands are wet from washing them? Hygienically brain dead.
Anyway, various kinds of doors that open to the outside should not generally be push-out types. Consider residential doors opening to the outside, particularly in cold c
High winds can generate surprisingly large forces on a door, and thereby make outward opening doors much more challenging, or even dangerous, especially for small people. The hydraulic dampers found on many commercial doors can help keep doors moving slower and safer when caught by the wind.
why, in the devil's briefcase, do most public restrooms have doors that you have to pull when your hands are wet from washing them?
Then do as most of my colleagues do, and DON'T wash your hands - then you don't need to pull with wet hands.
(Yeah, I know. I keep a bottle of alcohol in my drawer to wipe my keyboard and mouse whenever someone else has worked on my computer. And I avoid shaking hands.)
(Yeah, I know. I keep a bottle of alcohol in my drawer to wipe my keyboard and mouse whenever someone else has worked on my computer. And I avoid shaking hands.)
Doors that open outward will not work well when walls are opaque. If there is a corridor with foot traffic, it will not be safe to open the door if you cannot see if anyone is passing by. For obvious reasons.
For interior doors opening outwards means they end up partially or even completely blocking the corridor.
There is also possiblly a security/weatherproofing aspect to consider which is that the cracks arround a door are generally open to the side the door opens towards. On the other hand a door that opens inwards is probablly easier to open by brute force so maybe it balances out.
Agree 100%. Something as simple as a door should not require an instruction manual, even if it is a single word ("push" or "pull"). A good designer ought to be able to design any device as simple as a door so that it is easy to use correctly and difficult to use incorrectly, even for users that are minimally observant.
I recently thought about this when I entered a bathroom stall, and the flip lever near the top of the stall door had a coat hook on it as well. When the stall door was unlocked, the coat hook was up against the stall divider and impossible to use. When it was locked from the inside, the coat hook was available for use. Furthermore, if you did decide to hang something on it such as a coat, a purse, even a key, it would take actual effort to ignore the item as you tried to exit the stall. Simple, straightforward design that is functional and eliminates the possibility of leaving an item behind.
(Unfortunately, the toilet paper dispenser gave one lone, see-thru, single-ply sheet at a time and was positioned behind your left ankle. wtf.)
Those giant wheel dispensers of toilet paper are probably the most annoying. You have spin the wheel in two directions to figure out whether the roll of paper has been installed clockwise or anticlockwise by the cleaner/janitor.
"> I found myself pulling on a door clearly marked Push."
It's even worse in Brazil. Doors are clearly labeled 'Push' and Pull' in Portuguese...... but the Portuguese word for 'pull' is 'puxe', pronounced 'push'.
Gringo entering Brazil == immediate 50 pt IQ drain!
That is actually just an UI bug in the door. If you want people to push a door, you should use a handle that is like a plate, where you can easily put your hand against and push it. If you want people to pull the door open, you need to use vertical rod as a handle, where people can easily grab on to pull it. With this very small change, you don't even need to push/pull texts on the doors.
Not necessarily a bug...it's a feature that the user doesn't know how to use properly, much like the much maligned "Any" key. If you're inside an outward-opening door that has a pull handle on the inside rather than a plate, you can pull on it to stop others getting in. If there's a double-set of such doors, you could slide a pair of skis or a cricket bat or some other object through them so you won't need to stand there holding them shut to stop people getting in. Whether the door is on your side of its ja
These days all businesses are required to have doors that open outward, primarily due to the Cocoanut Grove fire way back in 1942, which killed 492 people.
Effectively what occurred is many of the exit signs were obscured, and there were no doors that opened outward. This caused massive traffic jams as people futilely attempted to escape the fire.
I think the level of discussion and explanation needed in what is really a very simple problem serves to illustrate why people have such a lot of problems with more complex problems!
Add in some emotions like frustration and impatience and you have a ticking time bomb.
Defused more than a few of those and missed a few as well, haven't we all?
A lot of modern office buildings have higher air pressure inside the building than the air pressure of the outside air. This is done to keep outside smells out of the building and to ensure higher AC efficiency by preventing hot outside air from coming in.
Thus, if the doors push open to the outside, the higher inside air pressure may just open the doors by itself, which would not be desirable.
Furthermore, a lot of office building doors open on busy walkable streets (imagine manhattan offices, for example).
Note that sometimes there is a good reason for pulling doors to get out: if the door opens on a frenquently circulated area then pushing it to get out might generate accidents.
I patched this bug at my school once. They had handles on both sides of the one-way doors in the lounge. Early one morning, I took a screwdriver to them and removed the "pull" handles, stashing them in my room. No one (including security/maintenance) noticed for a few weeks, or if they did, they were pleased by it. The general consensus was basically good riddins. Eventually though, security noticed (and started banging on the remaining handles with their maglites, as if it would do anything). I got f
Jesus christ, thats one of the most well thought out responses I've seen to an engineering/UI issue. I generally find myself feeling the same way as the GP, but seeing this sort of response puts me back in my place. I wish I was lucky enough to work around more people with that sort of attention to detail and knowledge.
> I found myself pulling on a door clearly marked Push.
Also, doors should be always pulled when you go in and pushed when you go out.
Note that, with standard door hardware, this would introduce a security hole. A locked door which opens outward is trivially easy to open without the key, because you can slide a credit card or other jimmy over the latching mechanism. When the door opens inward, you can't get to the latch because the door jam protects it.
That's okay, intelligence is simply potential you don't always use. I take pride in this fact, as I'm saving all my smart moments up for when I finally meet Hawking in person and frickin' own him.
I didn't exactly meet him, but he did nearly run me over in his dalek undercarriage when I staggered out of a pub, pissed, in Cambridge one night. I remember thinking that his wife was quite fit, but that could have been the beer goggles.
Don't let your head swell so much you can't get through the door.
We all have these moments, I call them moron moments, where we will do truly stupid things.
Using myself as an example: I have a (Tested) IQ of 151, and just this morning, I found myself pulling on a door clearly marked Push.
See myself, I just delight in putting Stickers labeled 'Push' on doors that must be pulled to open. I also enjoy emptying the ballpoint pens found in banks of ink, and taking eleven items to the nine items or less grocery line. While I readily admit that reality is pretty straightforward, I think people who stop questioning even the most basic tenets of reality will never accomplish anything of value.
Theres this one door that has a pull sign that actually goes both ways. One day I went, pushed it like usual, and it didn't open. It was locked and I started to walk away, but some guy behind me came and pulled it really hard while looking in my general direction; didn't open for him either, and he just stood there looking like a douche.
But when a very competent person is trying to help further your project (and has done so effectively for years), it's not very smart to give them shit. But some people would rather be "right" than effective. Oh well, human nature and all that.
Being obviously smarter than those around you is, well, a major cause of huge ego syndrome.
Actually this has been studied, look up the "Downing effect" and you'll find that studies have shown that most intelligent people are likely to under-estimate their own intelligence, and most unintelligent people are likely to think that they're very smart.
Same goes for specific fields, people who do well and people who think they're great are usually not the same people. I've seen this myself when doing exams to be honest. People who come out of exams thinking they've aced it often end up getting worse marks than the people who came out worrying.
When people who tell me, "Programming is hard. I could never program," I respond with, "If you can make out a shopping list, buy the groceries and cook dinner, serve it on the table, and enjoy a good meal; then, you can design, write, implement, and deploy a program. Only the language is different."
Basically, I'm a c programmer. I tell people, "If I can do it, anyone can do it."
I leave out the part where I tell them I've been doing it for almost 30 years.:-) Most programmers I know, who happen to be re
Don't you get a swollen head when you walk amongst dullards? Every time I see somebody pushing at the 'pull' on a door, I feel my disdain for others rising. When I stand behind a dunce in line, and hear him ask how many eggs in a dozen, I grow more sure of my position among the intellectual greats. When a waiter is unable to figure sums on his pad to give me a total, that I might reimburse him fairly for his service, I scoff at the fools that populate this world.
Dunno. I usually look at it as an opportunity to be helpful. I usually reserve my snarling, sneering rage for those who are about as smart as I am, but refuse to think a problem through. It feels good to help someone figure out something new, or remember something they have forgotten, like how many eggs in a dozen... but it feels just as good to leave someone a gibbering, sniveling wreck after crossing swords over which BSD would make the best foundation for a small-scale web-app server. Ego is its own rewa
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature... Life is
either a daring adventure or nothing."
-- Helen Keller
Linus (Score:5, Interesting)
Linus is brilliant. He is funny. Most days I really agree with anything he has to say.
However, he has butted heads with people in the past. Perhaps this is just human nature and unavoidable from time to time. Linus isn't perfect, nor always right. I thought he was really unfair to Con Kolivas when he drove Con away.
Re: (Score:0, Flamebait)
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit. The best programmers don't know if they're awesome. They just think everyone else is stupid.
Re:Linus (Score:5, Funny)
Being smarter is a big factor in programming well. Being obviously smarter than those around you is, well, a major cause of huge ego syndrome.
Don't you get a swollen head when you walk amongst dullards? Every time I see somebody pushing at the 'pull' on a door, I feel my disdain for others rising. When I stand behind a dunce in line, and hear him ask how many eggs in a dozen, I grow more sure of my position among the intellectual greats. When a waiter is unable to figure sums on his pad to give me a total, that I might reimburse him fairly for his service, I scoff at the fools that populate this world. In fact, in every day, in every way, the imbeciles I walk around cause my ego to grow nigh unto titanic proportions, certain I must be nearly akin to God Himself in my intellectual powers.
And I can only program in Basic. Imagine those towers of mind that must be a C programmer!
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We all have these moments, I call them moron moments, where we will do truly stupid things.
Using myself as an example: I have a (Tested) IQ of 151, and just this morning, I found myself pulling on a door clearly marked Push.
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Perhaps there was a decimal error on your IQ score?
(yes thank you I knew they were integers)
Meh (Score:2)
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Re:Linus (Score:4, Insightful)
A tested IQ of 151... and you think IQ is related to intelligence?
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That's not necessarily a correlation with intelligence, though. I can't quote sources at the moment (don't feel like looking them back up), but there's a strong argument that a good portion of the IQ test involves things that are really *knowledge*, not intelligence.
If true, that would explain all the correlations you mention without requiring the IQ test to actually be correlated with *intelligence*.
Re:Linus (Score:5, Informative)
Personally, that tells me something!
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The ability to score well on a given test is not NECESSARILY the ONLY indicator of intellect. Human minds are complex things. It would be impossible to create even the largest battery of tests to truly, fully measure their capabilities.
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Yeah. I know what the test is. I've tested a 163.
I still think it's complete bunk. Have you *taken* the test? Hell, there are parts on the test that measure hand-eye coordination more than anything else. Hope you didn't have enough coffee to make your hand shake that day...
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For example if I want to draw a formula on a graph, how would I represent it? Is it going to be human readable? I could gather 100 people and see if they understand it, I would draw it in such a way such that most people can understand it. And that's an indicator of how people understand graphs so I can
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I noticed that you are wrong already.
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Of course. But *he* clearly does. I found the contradiction amusing.
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and what does the "I" stand for, moron
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and you don't think IQ is related to intelligence?
It might not be a good measure of intelligence, but it is surely related to it.
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How very lucky we are that there is a continuous bijection mapping "intelligence" to the positive reals and not R2.
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A tested IQ of 151... and you think IQ is related to intelligence?
His counterexample to IQ==intelligence (the entire post you replied to, I don't know how you missed it) didn't give away what he thinks?
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You've never heard of a rhetorical question?
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Using myself as an example: I have a (Tested) IQ of 151, [...]
Howdy Forest!
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Using myself as an example: I have a (Tested) IQ of 151, and just this morning, I found myself pulling on a door clearly marked Push.
I think getting that right would have netted you an extra point. :)
Note to self: purchase some quantity of Push and Pull stickers and apply the inverse sticker over each I see in everyday life.
Re:Linus (Score:5, Interesting)
That is actually just an UI bug in the door. If you want people to push a door, you should use a handle that is like a plate, where you can easily put your hand against and push it. If you want people to pull the door open, you need to use vertical rod as a handle, where people can easily grab on to pull it. With this very small change, you don't even need to push/pull texts on the doors.
Also, doors should be always pulled when you go in and pushed when you go out. That makes exiting the building easier in case of emergency (people don't rush to the door and jam it, preventing anyone from pulling it open.) and also when people are trying to get in and out at the same time, the person outside is more capable of keeping the door open for the person going out (it is better that people first get out, before new people get in, because inside there is a limited space, while outside contains usually a lot more room). Also outside usually contains more room for pulling, while the inside often has a wall that limits the space for pulling, especially if you want to keep the door open for someone else.
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Where are my mod points when I need them ? :P
That is awesome, and yet the /. of 2009 is so full of jealous pseudo-intellectuals that yours and most other insightful posts will likely be downmodded.
Re:Linus (Score:5, Informative)
He's obviously read "Psychology of Everyday Things" (later reprinted as "Design of ..."), where this door UI issue is discussed in several case studies. "POET" is a classic must-read for anyone that designs anything that anyone might be expected to use.
http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0465067107/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248908564&sr=1-1 [amazon.com]
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Well said. About the only counterpoint is that a door which opens outward will tend to have hinges on the outside, making illegal entry easier.
Where I live, commercial establishments usually have outward opening doors for the safety of the large number of people that might need to exit in an emergency; whereas residential doors will have inward opening doors so that the hinges are not exposed.
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Buy a flush hinge for your outward opening door. Problem solved.
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Where I live, commercial establishments usually have outward opening doors for the safety of the large number of people that might need to exit in an emergency; whereas residential doors will have inward opening doors so that the hinges are not exposed.
I believe there's a federal law to build public buildings doors so that they open outwards because of the fire in Chicago theater from the early 20th century when lots of people died jammed at the entrance/exit doors trying to get out...
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...and also so that it's easier to break the door down from the outside in case of fire or police emergency. This is not a coincidence.
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Also, a house door opening outwards is good for smacking guests in the face, who tend to be waiting close by. And perhaps passers-by, in case of appartments.
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Also, doors should be always pulled when you go in and pushed when you go out. That makes exiting the building easier in case of emergency (people don't rush to the door and jam it, preventing anyone from pulling it open.) and also when people are trying to get in and out at the same time, the person outside is more capable of keeping the door open for the person going out (it is better that people first get out, before new people get in, because inside there is a limited space, while outside contains usually a lot more room). Also outside usually contains more room for pulling, while the inside often has a wall that limits the space for pulling, especially if you want to keep the door open for someone else.
Your door would suffer from issues if installed in an environment where it snows a lot.
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Your door would suffer from issues if installed in an environment where it snows a lot.
Only if the damn neighborhood kids forget to shovel the walk.
Push-out doors bad for snow and other egress (Score:1, Interesting)
I *absolutely* agree with you when it comes to many types of doors, especially public restroom doors -- why, in the devil's briefcase, do most public restrooms have doors that you have to pull when your hands are wet from washing them? Hygienically brain dead.
Anyway, various kinds of doors that open to the outside should not generally be push-out types. Consider residential doors opening to the outside, particularly in cold c
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High winds can generate surprisingly large forces on a door, and thereby make outward opening doors much more challenging, or even dangerous, especially for small people. The hydraulic dampers found on many commercial doors can help keep doors moving slower and safer when caught by the wind.
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Then do as most of my colleagues do, and DON'T wash your hands - then you don't need to pull with wet hands.
(Yeah, I know. I keep a bottle of alcohol in my drawer to wipe my keyboard and mouse whenever someone else has worked on my computer. And I avoid shaking hands.)
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(Yeah, I know. I keep a bottle of alcohol in my drawer to wipe my keyboard and mouse whenever someone else has worked on my computer. And I avoid shaking hands.)
I keep a bottle of alcohol in my drawer too!
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Doors that open outward will not work well when walls are opaque. If there is a corridor with foot traffic, it will not be safe to open the door if you cannot see if anyone is passing by. For obvious reasons.
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Also, doors should be always pulled when you go in and pushed when you go out.
Because everyone likes to be smashed in the face with a door when they walk down the corridor or along a pavement?
If your main door pushes out (probably applies to student accommodation most!) you can't barricade it but you can be stockaded in.
Pushing with a handle is more comfortable as it allows for more natural rotation of the wrist, particularly with heavier doors.
You can pull the door to as well [to too!] if it has a handle on the pushed side, plus you can usually use the handles to secure a pair of do
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For interior doors opening outwards means they end up partially or even completely blocking the corridor.
There is also possiblly a security/weatherproofing aspect to consider which is that the cracks arround a door are generally open to the side the door opens towards. On the other hand a door that opens inwards is probablly easier to open by brute force so maybe it balances out.
Re:Linus (Score:4, Interesting)
Agree 100%. Something as simple as a door should not require an instruction manual, even if it is a single word ("push" or "pull"). A good designer ought to be able to design any device as simple as a door so that it is easy to use correctly and difficult to use incorrectly, even for users that are minimally observant.
I recently thought about this when I entered a bathroom stall, and the flip lever near the top of the stall door had a coat hook on it as well. When the stall door was unlocked, the coat hook was up against the stall divider and impossible to use. When it was locked from the inside, the coat hook was available for use. Furthermore, if you did decide to hang something on it such as a coat, a purse, even a key, it would take actual effort to ignore the item as you tried to exit the stall. Simple, straightforward design that is functional and eliminates the possibility of leaving an item behind.
(Unfortunately, the toilet paper dispenser gave one lone, see-thru, single-ply sheet at a time and was positioned behind your left ankle. wtf.)
Sheryl Crow TP dispenser (Score:2)
No disgust . . . my backside.
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Those giant wheel dispensers of toilet paper are probably the most annoying. You have spin the wheel in two directions to figure out whether the roll of paper has been installed clockwise or anticlockwise by the cleaner/janitor.
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"> I found myself pulling on a door clearly marked Push."
It's even worse in Brazil. Doors are clearly labeled 'Push' and Pull' in Portuguese... ... but the Portuguese word for 'pull' is 'puxe', pronounced 'push'.
Gringo entering Brazil == immediate 50 pt IQ drain!
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That is actually just an UI bug in the door. If you want people to push a door, you should use a handle that is like a plate, where you can easily put your hand against and push it. If you want people to pull the door open, you need to use vertical rod as a handle, where people can easily grab on to pull it. With this very small change, you don't even need to push/pull texts on the doors.
Not necessarily a bug...it's a feature that the user doesn't know how to use properly, much like the much maligned "Any" key. If you're inside an outward-opening door that has a pull handle on the inside rather than a plate, you can pull on it to stop others getting in. If there's a double-set of such doors, you could slide a pair of skis or a cricket bat or some other object through them so you won't need to stand there holding them shut to stop people getting in. Whether the door is on your side of its ja
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These days all businesses are required to have doors that open outward, primarily due to the Cocoanut Grove fire way back in 1942, which killed 492 people.
Effectively what occurred is many of the exit signs were obscured, and there were no doors that opened outward. This caused massive traffic jams as people futilely attempted to escape the fire.
Quite a sad story.
Here's the wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoanut_Grove_fire [wikipedia.org]
Here's an example of such a law from the Oregon state fire code: https:/ [oregonlaws.org]
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> Also, doors should be always pulled when you go in and pushed when you go out.
It's fools like you that'll be the death of us all when the zombie apocalypse arrives and everyone jams the doors running *into* malls.
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I think the level of discussion and explanation needed in what is really a very simple problem serves to illustrate why people have such a lot of problems with more complex problems!
Add in some emotions like frustration and impatience and you have a ticking time bomb.
Defused more than a few of those and missed a few as well, haven't we all?
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A lot of modern office buildings have higher air pressure inside the building than the air pressure of the outside air. This is done to keep outside smells out of the building and to ensure higher AC efficiency by preventing hot outside air from coming in.
Thus, if the doors push open to the outside, the higher inside air pressure may just open the doors by itself, which would not be desirable.
Furthermore, a lot of office building doors open on busy walkable streets (imagine manhattan offices, for example).
Door open (Score:1)
Note that sometimes there is a good reason for pulling doors to get out: if the door opens on a frenquently circulated area then pushing it to get out might generate accidents.
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> Also, doors should be always pulled when you go in and pushed when you go out.
Depends where you live.
If you live in climates that have heavy snowfall, and your door only opens out, you're probably going to get locked in on occasion.
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>> I found myself pulling on a door clearly marked Push.
> That is actually just an UI bug in the door.
I found myself trying to lift a door clearly marked LIFT.
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Jesus christ, thats one of the most well thought out responses I've seen to an engineering/UI issue. I generally find myself feeling the same way as the GP, but seeing this sort of response puts me back in my place. I wish I was lucky enough to work around more people with that sort of attention to detail and knowledge.
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> I found myself pulling on a door clearly marked Push.
Also, doors should be always pulled when you go in and pushed when you go out.
Note that, with standard door hardware, this would introduce a security hole. A locked door which opens outward is trivially easy to open without the key, because you can slide a credit card or other jimmy over the latching mechanism. When the door opens inward, you can't get to the latch because the door jam protects it.
Re:Linus (Score:5, Funny)
That's okay, intelligence is simply potential you don't always use. I take pride in this fact, as I'm saving all my smart moments up for when I finally meet Hawking in person and frickin' own him.
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I didn't exactly meet him, but he did nearly run me over in his dalek undercarriage when I staggered out of a pub, pissed, in Cambridge one night. I remember thinking that his wife was quite fit, but that could have been the beer goggles.
fnord
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Don't let your head swell so much you can't get through the door. We all have these moments, I call them moron moments, where we will do truly stupid things. Using myself as an example: I have a (Tested) IQ of 151, and just this morning, I found myself pulling on a door clearly marked Push.
See myself, I just delight in putting Stickers labeled 'Push' on doors that must be pulled to open. I also enjoy emptying the ballpoint pens found in banks of ink, and taking eleven items to the nine items or less grocery line. While I readily admit that reality is pretty straightforward, I think people who stop questioning even the most basic tenets of reality will never accomplish anything of value.
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Let me guess ... it was one of those internet IQ tests, wasn't it?
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Theres this one door that has a pull sign that actually goes both ways. One day I went, pushed it like usual, and it didn't open. It was locked and I started to walk away, but some guy behind me came and pulled it really hard while looking in my general direction; didn't open for him either, and he just stood there looking like a douche.
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If you're head swells when you hear someone ask how many eggs are in a dozen, you're setting a very low bar for yourself.
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But when a very competent person is trying to help further your project (and has done so effectively for years), it's not very smart to give them shit. But some people would rather be "right" than effective. Oh well, human nature and all that.
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Being obviously smarter than those around you is, well, a major cause of huge ego syndrome.
Actually this has been studied, look up the "Downing effect" and you'll find that studies have shown that most intelligent people are likely to under-estimate their own intelligence, and most unintelligent people are likely to think that they're very smart.
Same goes for specific fields, people who do well and people who think they're great are usually not the same people.
I've seen this myself when doing exams to be honest.
People who come out of exams thinking they've aced it often end up getting worse marks than the people who came out worrying.
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Hey, I've done that...
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When people who tell me, "Programming is hard. I could never program," I respond with, "If you can make out a shopping list, buy the groceries and cook dinner, serve it on the table, and enjoy a good meal; then, you can design, write, implement, and deploy a program. Only the language is different."
Basically, I'm a c programmer. I tell people, "If I can do it, anyone can do it."
I leave out the part where I tell them I've been doing it for almost 30 years. :-) Most programmers I know, who happen to be re
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No. I just get tired.
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Don't you get a swollen head when you walk amongst dullards? Every time I see somebody pushing at the 'pull' on a door, I feel my disdain for others rising. When I stand behind a dunce in line, and hear him ask how many eggs in a dozen, I grow more sure of my position among the intellectual greats. When a waiter is unable to figure sums on his pad to give me a total, that I might reimburse him fairly for his service, I scoff at the fools that populate this world.
Dunno. I usually look at it as an opportunity to be helpful. I usually reserve my snarling, sneering rage for those who are about as smart as I am, but refuse to think a problem through. It feels good to help someone figure out something new, or remember something they have forgotten, like how many eggs in a dozen... but it feels just as good to leave someone a gibbering, sniveling wreck after crossing swords over which BSD would make the best foundation for a small-scale web-app server. Ego is its own rewa