[KLUG Members] Alert Annoyance

[Andrew Thompson]

Has this ever happened to you?

You're seated at your machine, typing away at whatever, when suddenly
the system pops up an alert box. You're typing so fast that before you
even know it, you've hit space, enter, whatever, and before you know
what even happened, the OK button flashes, the message vanishes, and you
don't know WHAT the HELL you just agreed to?!

It doesn't happen that often to me, but it did again tonight while I was
waiting for laundry. I didn't realize until several minutes later that
I'd just clicked through the timer notice. Sooner or later, if it hasn't
already, I'm going OK something I'll regret for the rest of my life, and
all because my system is eager as a puppy and not half so bright!

So here's my thought, and if anyone has any ideas on how to implement
such a thing, please do feel free to share. I think it would be nice if,
instead of taking the first keystroke they catch, these alerts would
wait, like, two or three seconds before accepting keystroke events.
Actual button clicks they could still take immediately, I think. It
seems less likely that a user would click right where a button popped up
before realizing it was there, but that could be an option, too.

I've pondered this little problem before, and the keystroke delay is the
first idea I've had that hasn't seemed TOO intrusive. Any opinions?
Thoughts on how to do it? Anyone?
-- 
Andrew Thompson <apthmpsn at imagerie.com>
The Imagerie (www.imagerie.com)