Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softy with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style
and so I came to see him, and listen for a while …
Listen to Roberta Flack’s rendition
Mostly in life you can choose to do things the hard, harsh way or the soft, gentle way.
Jake Howlett started off a discussion about What do do when Notes crashes back in April 2001, with a few comments including one by Mark Peters in January 2007 explaining what NSD (the Notes System Diagnostics) service that was introduced some years later (in Notes/Domino Release 6.0 or 6.5 was it?).
The other day Jake raised another issue with NSD, see Domino 8.5.1 on Windows 7 64 Bit Annoyance where he pines about the “Ask me later” option of NSD and about needing to restart his laptop. (As commenters point out, you don’t really have to restart Windows.) But obviously the NSD experience is undesirable, even for gurus like Jake much less your average Notes user.
I understand that NSD might be good and fine in some situations, but I’ve come to dislike intensely it’s pathetic user interface (a UX that truly SUX). This has led me to disable the service so as to avoid being faced with its appalling interaction.
The big usability issue for me is that, on your Notes Client (8.5.1 for me), whenever NSD is triggered your screen goes entirely BLACK except for the dreaded NSD dialog box:
Everything else that’s happening on your PC gets shoved into the black void aside and becomes unreachable until the NSD procedure is completed and disposed with. Urgent things (like incoming Skype calls) can’t be handled until then. At least that’s what I’ve been experiencing under 64-bit Windows 7 (but it may differ for other OS versions).
It’s quite unacceptable for this to happen. It’s even worse than what occurs with the Windows Vista and Windows 7 UAC dialog, where at least you can see what else is on the screen even if it’s greyed out. (And, of course, you can opt out of this disruptive UAC dialog if you want to risk it.)
As an aside, I actually work with four monitors, and the ALL go black, which makes the NSD process more heart-stopping than with a single monitor! See a picture of my monitor configuration at Coexistence of Lotus Notes releases 7 and 8 on the same Windows 7 system (using the new Windows XP Mode) or here’s another picture:
Hey now IBM, when there’s a Notes crash causing NSD to fire up, I expect to retain full concurrent access to all other Windows applications and not to be shut out of them. Get rid of those terrible blackouts, for goodness sake. Kill Notes softly!
I’ve just listened to the latest Taking Notes podcast -- Episode 105: 2010.01.07 - An Interview with Mary Beth Raven and Julie Forgo from the IBM Lotus UX Team and I don’t recall this ugly and intolerable NSD behavior getting a mention. It’s something that IBM Lotus UX teams needs to address ASAP.
What do the rest of you Notes aficionados think about the way that NSD interacts?
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