The image above illustrates what is perhaps the stupidest interface ever. It’s the “Network Connection Status” dialog in Windows Server 2003. Look the area outlined in red, and you can imagine why I’m irritated.
I was debugging a server issue over terminal server, and I wanted to check something on the LAN interface. I pulled up the window, and meant to click the “Properties” button, but clicked the “Disable” button accidentally.
Turns out that there is no confirmation window for this – you click that button, and your network connection is gone. Along with that, my terminal server window was gone too. Not surprisingly, my phone started ringing immediately.
Luckily the server was just in another room and I could run over and sit down in front of it. But what if I was doing this on a remote box to which I had no physical access?
Two things:
1.
Why put the “Self Destruct” button right next to the “Properties” button? That’s like having a hallway with a “Call the elevator” button right next to a “Shoot a flamethrower through my butt” button
2.
Why not have some kind of confirmation dialog? Disabling a network interface is not a common occurance. If I press that button, can you at least ask me if I really want to do it? What would that have taken – one extra line of code?
Rant over.