Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

ux.stackexchange.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 326 posts

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#241

Post by somenameforme »

waveBidder wrote: post #203
handsclean wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I internalize it: public voting selects for layman plausibility, not correctness. Because laymen massively outnumber experts, the layman vote always overwhelms the informed one, so the reaction of people who don’t know the subject is the only thing that matters. Truth only seems to matter because most subjects either can be somewhat intuited by non-experts, or are in a niche that you’re not, so “layman plausi…

there's another reason for some optimism about a voting-truth connection: wisdom of the crowds. As long as there isn't a strong bias to people's estimate, the average will converge on the truth.

As a peer comment mentioned, the wisdom of the crowds only functions when people operate independently. When people collaborate, our answers turn to junk again. And any sort of voting system is an inherent collaboration because you are basically seeing what's 'trending' by definition, so it destroys any sort of wisdom of the masses.

The only way you might have it work is if random people were shown random posts from random topics, and asked to vote on them. And the ranking was based upon that feedback. There's problems there as well, but probably far fewer than in the current system.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#242

Post by swozey »

anileated wrote: post #58

The point of a pointer is that it should stand off against the things it points at. A usual GUI for the most part has straight edges and certain symmetries. A cursor that is similarly symmetric will blend in more easily, and get visually lost. Which way it tilts is secondary, the irregularity of the tilt itself against the rest of the interface is key.

I don't know if it's me getting old or new HDR/5120 res/monitors with crazy white/black levels but I had to recently change my cursor color from white to green because I started losing it on all white screens.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#243

Post by Izkata »

akarve wrote: post #148

Most SO answers were non-answers or word salads. Thankfully one of you added an answer explaining that the cursor is already straight given that it must be visible from the graphics coordinate origin (upper left) and is 45 degrees wide. https://ux.stackexchange.com/a/149837/45927

...this is using wordplay to avoid answering the question. It doesn't explain anything.

Also:

> Thankfully one of you

We can see your name.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#244

Post by dragonwriter »

waveBidder wrote: post #203
handsclean wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I internalize it: public voting selects for layman plausibility, not correctness. Because laymen massively outnumber experts, the layman vote always overwhelms the informed one, so the reaction of people who don’t know the subject is the only thing that matters. Truth only seems to matter because most subjects either can be somewhat intuited by non-experts, or are in a niche that you’re not, so “layman plausi…

there's another reason for some optimism about a voting-truth connection: wisdom of the crowds. As long as there isn't a strong bias to people's estimate, the average will converge on the truth.

> As long as there isn't a strong bias to people's estimate, the average will converge on the truth.

Yes, as long as the truth is the most significant systematic influence on beliefs, any reasonable method of aggregrate of belief will converge on the truth with sufficient numbers.

Unfortunately, the required condition for convergence on the truth is often not true, and there is no way of reliably determining when it is true other than determining the truth independently and determining if belief converges on it.

Significant effects on belief about facts from cognitive/perceptual biases, especially where the fact is not something easily observable like “is it raining at this instant where you are standing” are not rare, and these biases often align for similarly situated individuals.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#245

Post by graemep »

TOGoS wrote: post #207
raffraffraff wrote: post #39

Without reading everything there is on the subject, I'd guess it's tilted for the same reason it's tilted to the left . Humans are tool makers and tool users. After enough time the tool becomes an extension of the body, even if the tip of the tool is mechanically or virtually detached from the hand that is controlling it. The tool maker designed this as a right-handed tool, coming into the frame in the right hand. If…

Dear OS makers: Please make it easier to swap the mouse buttons and also flip the cursor at the same time. I say this because I use multiple computers and depending on when and where I am using them, sometimes want the mouse on the left. In addition to it "feeling wrong" to use a right handed cursor with my left hand (I swear it physically gives me cramps), having the cursor not match the buttons is super frustrating…

Not multiple cursors, but XFCE lets you have two mice plugged in and one left handed and the other right handed.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#246

Post by Izkata »

causality0 wrote: post #113

I'm amazed none of the answers are pointing out that a straight cursor is completely non-naturalistic. A cursor tilted to the left resembles an arrow being held in the right hand and being used to point at something.

3 of them do, 2 with a hand pointing and 1 with people pointing sticks at chalkboards.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#248

Post by loeg »

dmoy wrote: post #210
loeg wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not interest free. E.g., I was paid $480 in interest on overpayments last year.

It is interest free if the IRS pays you within N days of you filing. If they're slower, then they pay interest. Where N is some value between like .... 30 and 90? I forget.

There are a number of different overpayment interest regimes[1]. Mine was paid based on time elapsed from the time of overpayment (overpaid quarterly estimated taxes).

[1]: https://www.irs.gov/payments/interest#pay

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#249

Post by tpmoney »

speff wrote: post #142
MenhirMike wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my friend the tax accountant gets downvoted for clarifying how taxes actually work. Let me guess: Tax brackets? That's the one thing that most regular workers in the US just don't seem to understand (and arguably, many people knowingly spread falsehoods to further some agenda).

Decent guess, but nah. Something to do with corporate tax accounting. Can't remember the details because that's out of my element.

Tax write offs would be my guess. Every employee of charities that partner with retail locations for PoS donations must die a little inside each time some fool confidently asserts that they never give to those charities because it's all a scam. The money, they will assert with the confidence only someone so wrong can muster, is just used for write offs so the executives can have a big bonus and the company gets to claim they donated all the money. Bonus points if they assert that the charity doesn't even get the donated amount.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#250

Post by isleyaardvark »

lupire wrote: post #219
isleyaardvark wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how far that can take you. I saw a post on another social media site about something being wrong, and a comment said it's not wrong, it was just missing a "not". Which was the exact reason it was entirely wrong. So people can state absolute absurdities and have people agree.

Some people are able to correct typos when reading.

Not the case there. The context of this was definitely not a typo.
Post reply on HN