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Re: user surveys for the Seul project

Roger Dingledine wrote:
> This is all very quantitative: we can figure out how hard people use their
> computers, and what they use them for. This is also very Unix-centric:
> implementing such a thing in windows would suck.
> (Unless it wouldn't. I'm just speculating.)
     No, it shouldn't be too arduous, given NT's performance counters.
Actually, most of what you've mentioned is doable without programming.
You would have to figure out which counters to use (can be configured
beforehand as a PMon script), and then you could probably use the AT
service (= daemon) to bring up and shutdown alternating PMon processes
so that you can get pass on the datafile to someone. Failing that, you
could probably also build a service to take care of your file management
and internet data transfer tasks.
     Of course, you would have to be judicious with your choice of
counters. On my dual P200 box, I can run pmon with a number of counters
going and no noticeable performance hit; I probably couldn't say that
about my collegues given that the boxes they tend to use are
underpowered and underRamed to start with, IMO (Can you say
MSFeatureBloat?)
     Under 95, though, you'd be under the hood into the APIs since the
counters aren't that plentiful, and _THAT_ would suck. :-)
     Just a thought.

> A lot of this can be done in a non-interactive way (that is, without
> a human having to parse an analog image). Granted we won't get the
> "most important stuff" (how does the user actually navigate through
> stuff, what's his response time to a new window, etc?) unless we're
> really clever with the code, but it's definitely a start.
     Even if you could get it, how would you quantify it?

> I think both ideas are useful. One is simpler to implement than the
> other, but one has the potential to give us a lot more data.
     Agreed.

     Cheers,

     Pete
-- 
Pete St. Onge - McGill U.  Limnology - Fun with Ropes & Buckets
pete_st_onge@iname.com         http://wwp.mirabilis.com/4322052