Where is Ploum ?

The biggest issue when talking about usability is that people tend to be used to what they get, even if sub-optimal. And because they are used to it, they will never question the validity of the current model and, worst, they will fight loudly against any change. That's why I'm so pleased when someone come with an out-of-the-box idea.

Just think about a machine that will need input. Add lot of buttons, more than one hundred, nearly all of the same size and color. Spread those buttons in a total random order, without even aligning them. That's it, you have the most widely used human-machine input mechanism : the keyboard !

Scary, isn't it ?

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Part 1 : Introduction
Part 2 : Home is Desktop
Part 3 : There's no tray icon in GNOME !

Repeat after me one more time : there's no such thing as a "tray icon" in GNOME. GNOME has a notification area which has nothing to do with the Windows-ish obscenity called "systray", this little space where any application can put a little icon.

I mean, seriously, have you ever think about how completely stupid is the idea of a "tray icon"? Can you imagine how black magic it should be for a new computer user?

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Le billet suivant est une méthode à destination des personnes souhaitant apprendre la disposition de clavier bépo, que ce soit en complément ou pour remplacer complètement l'azerty^[1] (l'utilisation des deux en parallèle étant en effet possible). Cette méthode est issue de mon expérience personnelle^[2] à laquelle j'ai corrigé certaines des erreurs que j'ai faites lors de mon apprentissage.

Se mettre au bépo demande de la motivation et une certaine assiduité au début. Cependant, cela peut également être un défi amusant et un investissement pour préserver vos articulations.

Quelle que soit la façon que vous choisissiez pour passer au bépo, il est impératif d'avoir une méthode structurée et de faire des exercices avec un logiciel de dactylographie. Passer au bépo brusquement en pensant que l'habitude viendra peut rallonger votre période d'apprentissage de 6 semaines à 6 mois voire plus ! Pensez-y : vous avez mis plusieurs années pour arriver à votre vitesse actuelle en azerty.

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As I previously pointed out, there's a huge need to have a clear distinction between the user preferences and the user data. This is already covered by the FreeDesktop XDG folders specification.

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Part 1 : Introduction
Part 2 : Home is Desktop
Part 3 : There's no tray icon in GNOME!


After I installed Ubuntu for Marie, she quickly grasped a lot of things and I discovered that she was really bright. She quickly organized a lot of folders for all of her project, downloading a lot of file and putting them in a lot of place. On the opposite, Jean had a lot of difficulties to understand the file concept. Well, in fact, he understood the document concept he was not seeing where those documents were.


How can I make things easier ?

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Part 1 : Introduction
Part 2 : Home is Desktop
Part 3 : There's no tray icon in GNOME!

The terrific world of computers

Geeks like me are used to compare operating systems and desktop environments, discussing the benefits of one over the others. But, most than often, we loose the big picture and forget about the users.

I mean : "the real-life users", those who cannot even grasp the basic concepts and who use a computer because they have no choice. Some geeks would say that "it's good for them to learn" but I really disagree. Everyday I see very bright people who need to have their emails printed out on hard paper so they can read them or who cannot understand the difference between the "minimize" and the "close" button on a window.


It seems so hard

It is real : most users are simply lost in a terrific world where newspapers talk about "virus" and "hackers" all the time. They are even afraid to sit in front of their own computer ! If something popup on the screen, they panic and loose all common sense. "Do you want to save this file ? Yes or no ?" and they scream : "What do I do ? What do I have to do ? Please tell me ! I'm afraid that, if I click on the bad button, the computer will explode"^[1].

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