Looking under rocks...
I've really been enjoying Jensen Harris's blog recently, he's been talking about the UI design that went into Office 12.
Today's post (on turning over rocks) is no different, reading it brought a smile to my face, mostly because of this paragraph:
I don't know why we say "under rocks." Maybe I made it up, maybe I heard it somewhere, who knows. The picture I get in my head is an insect-eating animal crossing the land, turning over rocks to look for meals. Occasionally, a rock will be hiding a juicy insect. Most times, however, there's nothing under the rock. As a result, the animal spends most of his day looking under rocks.
You see, when I think of looking under rocks, I think of an event that happened way back when I was 5 years old or so. My friend Danny Dexter and I were out hunting for worms (it's a 5 year old thing) on a wooded hillside near our homes. We were lifting up rocks, clawing through the dirt underneath the rocks looking to see if there were any worms, and then putting the rocks back.
We'd been at this for a while, and I pushed up a HUGE rock (ok, huge for a 5 year old). I couldn't hold the entire weight of the rock, so I just tipped it back. Underneath the rock was the motherload of worms - there had to be a bazillion of them (ok, this was 35+ years ago, forgive me for my poor memory). So with my left hand, I'm scrabbling in the dirt trying to find more worms.
And I took my right hand off the rock, and started waving "Hey Danny!".
<at this point, the storyteller pauses for dramatic effect as the listeners watch him pretending to paw the ground with his left hand while waving with his right hand (previously used to prop up the rock)>
Crunch! The rock fell down, and Larry's left hand was somewhat smushed underneath it.
6 stitches later, I had a souvenir of the day, it's a 2 inch scar running lengthwise across my left palm. No loss of functionality, just a white line. But a good story anyway :)
For the next 15 years or so, I used the scar to tell my left hand from my right (I'm slow that way). To this day, when giving directions, I have to fight the urge to hold up my left hand to confirm which side is left.
Anyway, check out Jensen's blog, it's absolutely worth it.
Comments
Anonymous
October 11, 2005
The comment has been removedAnonymous
October 11, 2005
It is very interesting that you still have the urge to examine you palms to see which is left or right.
I have a scar on my right palm, from an age 5 injury, that I used and still use to confirm my left from my right.
So I guess we are both slow that way..Anonymous
October 11, 2005
The comment has been removedAnonymous
October 11, 2005
The comment has been removedAnonymous
October 11, 2005
Jeez, I have a childhood scar on my left finger. All this time, I could've been using it to tell which one was my left hand.Anonymous
October 11, 2005
Need help distinguishing left from right? Here's how.
Use a Microsoft Windows Control Panel applet to switch your mouse setting from right-handed to left-handed. Microsoft doesn't discriminate against sinister users. Yet. (Well, not yet for the time frame we're about to discuss.)
Buy a Microsoft Mouse. Fortunately they're no longer available new, so you'll have to buy a used one. (That's an original Microsoft Mouse that is, not one of the modern abuses of the name.)
Try to use the mouse. If you're comfortable using the hardware but the software gives you fits, you're using your right hand. If both the hardware and software give you fits, you're using your left hand. Giving you fits doesn't mean that it fits your hand.Anonymous
October 11, 2005
Hmm I do something similar with a scar on my right knee (which seems to be fading to nothing), even though usually it's covered by my trouser leg.
I wonder if there is a research project here for a psychology student?Anonymous
October 11, 2005
The comment has been removedAnonymous
October 12, 2005
I can't remember when I learned to tell that difference, but I remember it took a good while before I learned the names and directions of the 4 points between the "four cardinal points of the compass" if that is the correct term. In english it is so easy, north-east and so on.
Most kids learned them a lot earlier than me. http://www.portofkotka.fi/saa/SaaSel.html
I think the only test I've cheated on school was writing those directions on my hand :-)Anonymous
October 12, 2005
If you raise/look at your left/right hand you already know where left/right is. If you were to examine both hands to figure out which is left and which is right then it'd be a different story but if you only do one then it's kinda pointless, you already know the information you're looking for :)Anonymous
October 12, 2005
The comment has been removedAnonymous
October 12, 2005
Wednesday, October 12, 2005 8:25 AM by Joku
> I think the only test I've cheated on school
> was writing those directions on my hand :-)
Hey, you can't just leave us hanging like that.
On WHICH hand did you write those directions?Anonymous
October 12, 2005
I like the story - thanks for sharing. :-) "The hills are alive, with the sound of Larry..."
(Unfortunately, the pedant in me forces me to point out that it's motherlode, not motherload.)Anonymous
October 14, 2005
it took me a while to learn it too- the problem is that it doesn't make any sense. Point to the right. Now turn 180' and point to the right- it's a completely different direction- that's not fair.
So I had to think about the hand I put over my heart during the pledge.
I learned compass points very quickly.
Absolutes are a lot easier than relative coordinate systems.Anonymous
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