I’m feeling a little better after my surprise wisdom tooth removal.
During a lucid moment today, I decided to look out of the window but there was an unfamiliar layer that sort of fell out. Here’s a video of what happened:
I’m not sure if these things are all across the US but I’m hoping not to encounter what they’re designed to repel. I’ll look out for more minor differences when I’m fully better.
The U.S. light switch configuration is also more logical in terms of UI design because up = positive = presence and down = negative = absence.
Good point. The image with this answer on a UX thread illustrates how down=off would be a failsafe.
I need a separate post showing British windows now! Thoroughly confused! Lol
Hi Natalie,
well British windows don’t have any kind of ‘screen’. I was told after posting that ‘fly net’ wasn’t the right word 🙁
We’ve left the U.K now so I don’t have pictures of the windows in our flat, but windows would look something like this, where some of the windows can open outwards.
I must say that I’m not looking forward to whatever these screens are stopping – I don’t think the U.K had anything more dangerous than bees.
Even then, bees in the UK aren’t that common in houses. In the five years I lived there with Chris, we only had a few bugs in the house and most times they were just flies. We kept the windows open quite a bit, so I think they just weren’t interested. I think a wasp came in once when it was unusually hot, but that is the other thing – England rarely gets that hot, so the season for insects that you really want to keep out is very short if it happens at all.
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Windows screens can be a bit different even from one part of the US to the other. Here we have them that slide up to get out of the way. I’ve never seen one that tall – ours are the same size as the window. Something else to consider. Most houses in the US have some type of climate control – so we don’t open our windows that much anyway. The fact that I only have one window AC unit is considered a bit strange by some of my coworkers since most houses seem to have HVAC, now (new houses will def. have Central Heating/Air.) I have a window fan that I use to pull hot air out of my living room but that’s kinda oldfashioned.
We had a massive multiple day power outage in July of 2012, and I found most of my windows had been painted shut or the storm window was stuck. I had never opened those windows in the 8 years I owned the house.
Also, some houses (mine for instance) have light switches that some time are up for on and sometimes down. That’s because we have two switches for the same light or outlet. This is especially common by stairs (so you can turn them off after using them) & entrances. If both switches are down, and you flip one up to turn a light on. then the other switch must be flipped up to turn the light back on.
Oh and even without opening windows I’ve gotten giant bees bigger then my thumb in my house. (I believe I dropped an encyclopedia on it) I’ve also seen giant ants that are over an inch long (not in my house), and let’s not talk about wolf spiders. Flies are the least of my buggy worries 😀
Yuk
Yuk
Yuk!
I’m not going to look up whatever “wolf spiders” are. Please stop scaring me :-S
Yes, the two switch lights would be the same in the UK as there’d be no way to have any direction.
I’m looking forward, when we finally find somewhere to live, to having all these modern conveniences like AC. We are sort of living in the Dodge during the day and the AC is invaluable.
The latest video (Brighton) is my conversion experience to having screens on buildings 🙂