guidance-powermanager's "switching to bat. mode" popup - is it useful?

[Avdi Grimm]

On 5/16/07, Martin Böhm <martin.bohm at kubuntu.org> wrote:
> I still claim that a pop-up is a too agressive solution for this duplicated
> and rather informational type of notification. What does a user do when he
> wants to check the battery state? He looks at the icon. What would the user
> do when he wants to check whether his battery is not used anymore? I believe
> he would check the battery icon - the same thing he does when he check the
> battery state.

The point is that the one time I really *care* about the plugged-in
state - when I am accidentally unplugged, either on the laptop end or
the wall end - is also the time that I am not paying attention to the
plugged-in state.  I.e. I am simply assuming that I am plugged-in,
therefore I am not subconsciously checking the tray icon.

Incidentally, I have actually been bitten by this in the past.  I
missed the notification for some reason - maybe I looked away from the
screen for too long - and then was startled when I started getting
low-battery warnings, and had to scramble for the cord before the
machine auto-hibernated.  In my opinion, the notifications are useful
information.

-- 
Avdi