Ah, my kingdom for high-powered ultraviolet laser beams…
(just so’s ya know, I typed “beans” first, instead of “beams” - really changes the whole meaning.:D)
Seriously, people, how hard it is to point with a pen that won’t leave a smudge?
ParentalAdvisory, there’s a consumer product for every need.
Stock up on these and insist that habitual screen-touchers utilize them if they absolutely must touch the screen. I have a feeling they may opt to keep their hands to themselves.
Some of my very dearest friends are… oh, it pains me to admit this - I consort with screen-touchers! They’re good people, really, when you get to know them. And perhaps, just perhaps, one day they’ll learn.
My heart is heavy with sorrow. All around my I see people with such freaking awful eyesight that their eyeglasses and computer screens are caked with filth. Better to have VPL, big swaths of unshaven jawline, or an open fly than to go out in the world with dirty glasses. I have only pity for the screen-touchers. Except that one time I slapped an intern’s hand away from my pristine monitor.
Yrs. in alcohol and cotton pads.
I and my work mates are in GIS. Lots of maps that people love to point at.
We keep laser pointers handy for this. It’s also works good for training.
My work mates looks just like a 12 ga shotgun shell. Most people keep their hands away from his sreen.
At the place I used to work the Mac operator had a 21" monitor that built up massive amounts of static electricity. You could tell when someone tried to touch the screen by the way they jumped three feet in the air exclaiming “shit” and clutching their index finger.
The computer screen finger smudges don’t bother me much, I just wipe them off. The smudges on the television screen and scanner glass are what bothers me. Why would you have any need to touch the TV screen? No one uses the scanner, but fingerprints seem to find their way on to the glass.
Oddly enough, they never learned. It was always the same people you saw flying around the room with shocked expressions.
But what about those of us who (when the helpdesk proxies onto my computer) touch the screen to explain what we need help with. Or, is that a different problem altogether? :o
Oh, this bugs me so much. First thing I do every day when I come in to work is clean the screen at whatever station I’m using that day. I guess I can’t blame my coworkers too much, though, because most of the instruments we use here have touchscreens so it gets to be a habit.
Be glad you don’t have to clean off blood, serum, and urine as well as fingerprints. (And let’s not even talk about the phones.)
This drives me nuts as well. I have a glass wall behind me in my office, and the glare on my monitor is only manageable if I keep it absolutely spotless. There are a couple of co-workers who continually come to me to ask my advice, and they ALWAYS have to reach out and touch the screen while showing me what they need help with. I’ve even told them. I’ve even put my hand in front of the monitor while they’re reaching and said, “Ack! Don’t touch! I just cleaned it.” But no matter what I do, they always manage to lose control and touch it at some point. I have to keep a bottle of windex and a roll of paper towels on my desk. Super annoying.
I had no idea this was something adults did! Here I’ve been chiding my children and assuming they’d just grow out of it eventually.
Here is a tip: When you have to touch the screen, touch it with the tip of your finger nail instead. No smudge, no fuss.
Just don’t make the same mistake I did and point at the screen with a magnetic screwdriver! It does reallllly weeeird things to it, and can possibly damage the screen permanently.
I was lucky to be able to use a degaussing tool to restore it to normal.
When faced with a difficult moral question such as this, I always consult the scriptures.
In Daniel 8:16-17 16 it is written:
And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.
So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.
For Gabriel to make the man to “understand the vision,” he would have to let him experience the vision in some other sense besides that of pure sight. Of course, touching is the most natural extension of the senses after sight, and so it is likely that Gabriel led the man’s palms forward, to decipher the the complex vision with his own hands.
And then the man stepped forward and spoke “at the time of the end[sup]*[/sup] shall be the vision.” Even the most conservative of biblical scholars understand this to mean that when the end [of the finger] is reached, the vision shall exist in that very spot, in the very contact between man and the world.
[sup]*my emphasis[/sup]
It’s pretty damn obvious that the Almighty says not only can you touch the computer screen, he says that you should touch the computer screen. And what is a punch, but a more zealous form of the touch? Miller, you are in the clear. God says punching the monitor is OK.
My flat screen has been touched once. Once.
If you dont know any better, I’ll learn ya in a hurry.
*reaches for a miniature guilliatine(sp)
I did the same thing with a magnet, and there was a slightly darker than normal spot near the center of my monitor screen. It seems to have gone away with time.
Jeff Olsen, that would be this thread. I am d_redgal. (It happened back before I had registered.) That may still be my most amusing shopping experience…
THANK YOU, one and all!!!
Had a girlfriend who Inisited on touching the screen…
even tried to get her to use her nail to point…
but nope, nope, nope…
She managed to turn it that >I< was nuts to think touching the screen was a problem
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, I’m no longer alone in the asylum!!
(note operative verb…“had”)
hang draw and quater me, im one of those touch the screen people. example:
me: “wow that piece is interesting” point at but not touching screen
him:“what piece?”
me:“this piece below that piece here " point again
him:“i have no idea what the hell you are pointing at”
me"here” point
him:“where?”
me:“HERE”
him:“WHERE?”
me:“HERE” gives in and touches the screen running my finger under the image or text bouncing ball style
him:“oooooh there”
believe me this exact exchange happens far more often than it should.
My boss is a habitual screen-toucher. Drives me fucking insane.
Whenever we’re working with something at my desk, I wind up with lots of little greasy smudges. I smile and ignore it, and then as soon as she leaves, I’m like fucking Adrian Monk with the glass wipes.