(Comments added for week ending Sun 03 Nov 2002) | View Other Weeks
| last updated:04 Nov 2002 11: 37 Webword time, or 04 Nov 2002 16:37 UK time |
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| Webword Statistics - Recent Comments (Comments added for week ending Sun 03 Nov 2002) | View Other Weeks |
| My Eight Favorite Usability Books | Sun 03 Nov |
| (WebWord) Below is a list of my favorite usability, human factors, and web design books. If I did not own these books, I would buy them. I find myself going back to these books again and again. A couple of them have been replaced because Ive worn them out. These are the books that I recommend to other people all of the time. Simply put, if I did not have them available to reference and read, I would feel like my library was not complete. |
| Sun 03 Nov 18:59 | John S. Rhodes | These are my seven favorite books. As I said, these are books that I use all of the time and really like them, for one reason or another. I'm sure that some people won't agree with me and I'm sure that there are other great books available. This is just one data point! Please feel free to list your favorite usability books. If you are an Amazon affiliate, and you link to Amazon, be sure to use affiliate link. If you hate Amazon, uh, sorry. |
| Sun 03 Nov 23:39 | Cheese Witherspoon | So what is it bubba? Seven or eight? |
| Sun 03 Nov 23:44 | John S. Rhodes | Bubba responds: Greater than seven but less than nine. |
| WebWord Comment | Fri 01 Nov |
| If Google should be regulated because it is the dominant search engine, then should eBay be regulated because it is the dominant auction web site? Should we also regulate Microsoft Windows? Lets regulate everything! |
| Sun 03 Nov 07:58 | Vincent Benard | Why regulate ? In that case, regulation would be a way for google's competitors, to gain the market share they didn't get by bringing more value to customers. Regulation must happen only when a dominant player is using unfair or illegal tactics to prevent a competitor from entering the market. As far as I know, google hasn't employed any of these tactics to get a competitor out of the market. So google domination is not based on illegal or unfair practices. It doesn't compare with the microsoft case. About ranking methods used by google: If one doesn't like the way google ranks it results, just use another search engine, or create a new one ! But google is free to use the way thay want to rate web pages. 'Regulation' in this case must come from competition: be better than google, provide more accurate results, better 'search refinement' tools, more value for customer, and google's predominance will be regulated for the best. |
| Sun 03 Nov 23:01 | Stephen Downes | Everybody wants to regulate Google. But maybe we should regulate services, like link farms, that abuse Google. |
| Ubiquitously yours | Sun 03 Nov |
| (v-2) My hope is that, with care and attention to the needs of human beings in all the texture and mystery of their real, everyday lives, we can design systems that will support us when we need support, operate imperceptibly on our behalf when required, and just as imperceptibly fade from the picture during those valuable moments when we choose to go it alone. |
| Sun 03 Nov 10:16 | Mac | This article manages to express both the hopes and the fears that come from the promises of 'ubiquitous computing'. For some reason it reminded me of the debates around 'Taylorism'. And I only had to look up 5 words in the dictionary, although I did have to print it off to read it properly. A very thoughful piece, just right for contemplation on a Sunday afternoon. |
| Sun 03 Nov 15:59 | Cheese Witherspoon | Wish this was written in English. |
| Sun 03 Nov 16:59 | Anonymous | Eu desejo este fui escrito em uma língua que eu poderia compreender! |
| Sun 03 Nov 22:14 | Chad Lundgren | I wish v-2's 'Large Print' option used a larger font itself, and wasn't hidden at the bottom. For a site that claims to have a usability focus, that's bad. Plus, the Default text button goes to the site's default, not my default. I emailed them to complain. The article itself made good points. I would rather not have 'ubi-comp' at all if it goes the Panopticon route. |
| Sun 03 Nov 22:45 | db | funn how they proudly display nifty looking 'valid xhtml' and 'valid css' icons, but that page isn't either of those. |
| PrisonSucks.com | Mon 28 Oct |
| Prisonsucks.com is a clearinghouse for useful, verifiable statistics about the crime control industry. Too often prison activists use statistics that are out of date, provided without citation or simply wrong. (Comments: Why are so few Asians in jail? Why do so few Asians hold public office? Just curious.) |
| Mon 28 Oct 22:11 | Adam Greenfield | Why are so few Asians in jail? Why do so few Asians hold public office? You mean in the United States, I assume. |
| Mon 28 Oct 22:21 | John S. Rhodes | Yes, in the United States. Sorry for the confusion. |
| Tue 29 Oct 01:00 | MadMan | You mean you want more Asians in jail? [raises eyebrows] |
| Tue 29 Oct 02:55 | Mac | A right winger would say that becuase of the traditional family values exhibited by Asians they are less likely to commit crimes. They would also argue that there are a lot of Black people in prison because they are 'naturally' criminal. If you want to know why there are so many Black people in Jail then look at 'Black Panthers' and 'The War On Drugs' for a piece of the jigsaw. |
| Tue 29 Oct 10:55 | JB | There are less in gaol because they have a stronger family unit. And those that aren't are probably smarter than the average criminal. There are less in public office because they are less driven by ego and self gratification and more focused, again, on the family unit. |
| Tue 29 Oct 19:14 | Lydia | JB, are you being sarcastic? African American's have one of the strongest, most genuine, family bonds I know of so the 'family unit' argument doesn't really cut it. More than likely it has to due with the Asian ideal of going unnoticed so that they may go undisturbed. Combine that with a stronger 'right and wrong' awareness and that could equal fewer Asians in jail. |
| Tue 29 Oct 20:25 | Adam Greenfield | Whoah! African American's have one of the strongest, most genuine, family bonds I know of... And those that aren't are probably smarter than the average criminal. You guys would jump all over someone trying to trot out banal generalizations like these on usability matters. Anytime anyone around here asserts something, you expect them to be able to back it up, and yet the moment the talk turns to 'race' and ethnicity, y'all let loose with some of the most unverifiable propositions I can imagine. |
| Tue 29 Oct 20:49 | Ron Zeno | What does this topic have to do with usability??? As for the discussion, here is a source summarizing some relevant facts from the US 2000 census: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/census2000/134541548_webpoverty24.html |
| Wed 30 Oct 10:05 | boysen | The topic being prisons and Mac takes the opportunity to criticize his political opposition with: 'A right winger would say that becuase of the traditional family values exhibited by Asians they are less likely to commit crimes. They would also argue that there are a lot of Black people in prison because they are 'naturally' criminal.' First, I doubt you could find much evidence to support this assertion. But the bigger issue is why you would bring it up in the first place? Talk about stones and glass houses. Personally, I believe socio-economic levels have a greater correlation to crime than race... but that's just my opinion. Be careful not to 'apply' it to a larger population segment. |
| Wed 30 Oct 11:01 | jan | Mac referred to Black Panther and War on Drugs pages in his comment. While some people may think the Black Panther movement was justified, I don't see how militant actions will ever help a group improve its position in society. Violence begets violence. And worse, because the militant group gets so much media attention, people who have the same physical characteristics as the militants also get labeled negatively even though the majority are good, law-abiding people. It is highly doubtful that the Black Panther movement helped decrease prejudice and discrimination against Blacks in the slightest. I would say the group probably did more to hinder the cause of equal rights. War on Drugs: I don't see decreased spending on higher education and increased spending on prisons as the reason for more black people in prison. It does not take even a high school diploma to see the difference between right and wrong. Higher education can help people achieve more economically, but it doesn't make them better people morally (I bet the Enron and WorldCom CEOs had college degrees). Good morals and honor come from within and are not limited to a certain economic group or race. Most state universities have minority recruitment programs. If Blacks have an interest in pursuing higher education, the schools are more than happy to accommodate them and provide financial backing for them to obtain a good education. But the individual has to make the effort to apply and seek that backing. The individual must take responsibility for him or herself. As for the rest of the War on Drugs article, I have to agree that I think it's a waste of resources to conduct such a 'war.' As long as there is demand, there will be people more than willing to provide a supply, regardless of the legality. |
| Wed 30 Oct 14:00 | Mac | boysen, I'm sorry if I was too zealous in my pre-emtive strike. It's just that I spend an awful lot of time having these kind or arguments with 'Darwinian 'It's all in the genes' eugenicists', and it becomes a bit of a habit. I sincerely apoligise. I think it's useful to remember that the state with its police and prisons does not operate in a benign way. It has an agenda, and will happily use 'human nature' smokescreens to cover it's tracks. In the UK a large proportion of people who go to jail for non payment of debt are women. Is it because they are more sneaky than us men? No, of course not, it's because when the TV Licence man knocks on the door to find out why you haven't got a TV licence, it's usually a woman who answers the door and gets the whopping fine. The reasons for the make up the prison population are many, but you can be sure that one of the elements that plays it's part is political. If the UK government deport 70% of asylum seekers coming into the country, then they declare that '70% of all asylum seekers are bogus', where as the figure has a lot more to do with the current targets and political situation than the validity of someones claim to asylum. I am 'identified' as an enemy of the state and get extra attention from the police, this is not because I am more likely to commit a crime. Jan, I mentioned the Black Panthers because they are a good example of a group of people who were killed and arrested by the police because of what they represented rather than what they did. The assasinations had started with the murder of Little Bobby Hutton by the Oakland police. When the Chicago police killed Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, many people throughout the country began to suspect that there was a national police conspiracy to wipe us out, and each new attack on the brothers confirmed this suspicion. Huey P Newton - Revolutionary Suicide p256 On April 2, 1969, twenty-one New York Black Panthers were arrested and charged with conspiring to bomb several New York police stations and department stores. Bail was set at $100,000 each, and the defendants had to spend ten months in jail awaiting trial. On May 13 1971, after a trial that lasted eight months , the thirteen defendants who stood trial were unanimously acquitted of all twelve counts of the indictment. Revolutionary Suicide (footnote on page 256) For years the Establishment media presented a sensational picture of us, emphasizing violence and weapons. Colossal events like Sacremento, the Ramparts confrontation with the police, the shoot-out of April 6 1968, were distorted and their significance never understood or analyzed. Furthermore, our ten-point program was ignored and our plans for survival overlooked. The Black Panthers were identified with the gun. Huey P Newton - Revolutionary Suicide p330 |
| Wed 30 Oct 14:34 | JB | Actually Lydia I wasn't. I should have stated this is my observation after living in Asia for two years. I genuinely see the family unit having a massive influence on the children and this flows through to adulthood. One of the key problems that Asia is facing is that as a country becomes more Westernized it loses these traditional values that flow through into things like aged care and lower crime etc. |
| Wed 30 Oct 19:39 | Lydia | OK, JB, that explains a lot. This was a link for statistics in America, and Asians in America have very different dynamics than in Asia. Adam, it is difficult to 'back up' the types of observations people are making here. JB gives his credentials as living in Asia for two years, I could mention being married to an Asian man for almost 10 years as the source of my interpretation, but none of us are experts, which is why every post is full of language like 'could equal' and 'may be' and 'indicates'. |
| Wed 30 Oct 22:17 | Ron Zeno | Just look at the US Census stats: Guess what group has the highest income? Lowest? Average levels of education? There's also some very telling relationships between race and family size/organization and fertility/age. |
| Wed 30 Oct 23:51 | Adam Greenfield | Lydia, please. They can't be 'backed up' because they're in the realm of folk shibboleths, and about as meaningful. Asians 'probably smarter than the average criminal'? Again: please. |
| Thu 31 Oct 01:07 | Lydia | Er... Adam I was trying to be tactful when explaining that you can't back up personal value judgements, so you have to read between the lines at the words people are using to indicate that it is just speculation. I'm treating your comments with respect; I don't think I need a snide response in return. |
| Thu 31 Oct 05:12 | Adam Greenfield | I found your post condescending and replied in kind. If I read that in, then I apologize. And I'm *still* not sure what a post this far offtopic is doing here. |
| Thu 31 Oct 07:01 | Mac | > Ron Said: What does this topic have to do with usability??? > Adam Said: And I'm *still* not sure what a post this far offtopic is doing here. Even though 'prison populations' has nothing to do with usability, the form of the discussion does. People are exploring the issuse by listening to other peoples views and responding, rather than just accepting the 'facts' about percentages of ethnic groups in prison without thinking about the why and wherefore. An example: When Nielsen states: more than half of all users demonstrate 'search-dominant' tendencies, then we can either accept this at face value, or we can try to understand more about the issues it raises. Even if you disagree with the UIE view of search, at least they are coming up with their own explanations for user bahaviour, and not just accepting the 'official explanation'. 'Watch what users do, not what they say they do' Could this apply to politicians as well? What is the explanation for the large proportion of women working in usability (compared with the programming field) ? Is it because usability is a more touchy-feely subject? Or is it because women are barred from the more technial fields by sexist managers and co-workers? Yes the subject of prisons has nothing to do with usability, but the debate we have can help us hone our skills when we come to look at usability related issues. |
| Thu 31 Oct 09:42 | Ron Zeno | Yes the subject of prisons has nothing to do with usability, but the debate we have can help us hone our skills when we come to look at usability related issues. OK. Instead, why not follow the lead of my weblog by demonstrating and promoting critical thinking directly to usability-related information and providing recommended sources of information on influence and critical thinking? While I've researched and posted top sources on tactics used to influence others, such as Propaganda Critic, I'd like some help sifting through the many resources on critical thinking, such as Mission Critical (which I find to be a bit too academic). If you've found such sources that you recommend, please post them or email me. |
| Thu 31 Oct 10:55 | JB | Adam I said that as a way of acknowledging that all races commit crimes and admittedly Asians in the US maybe committing lower number of crimes per capita, but at the same time - maybe they are smarter? Who knows...I should not have been so flippant. Apologies! |
| Thu 31 Oct 20:48 | Adam Greenfield | Wow, I'm surprised at the assumption embedded there. Let's unpack the whole complex, however flippantly it was meant - should make Mac happy as a demonstration of critical thinking. 'Fewer Asians are in jail in the United States per capita as opposed to members of other racial groups, possibly because they're smarter.' There are quite a few problematic assertions embedded there: - Higher intelligence entails lower criminality. - The rate of criminality is accurately tracked by rates of imprisonment. - Intelligence is a unitary entity. - There is a positive and causal, even if indirect, correlation between that entity and ethnicity. - Taken together: the ethnicity of an individual is a reliable predictor of their intelligence and therefore their propensity to commit crime. Stuff and nonsense, as I'm sure we'd all agree. There are holes in this argument you can fly a C-5 through, starting with the fact that white-collar crime causes at least as much (if not far more) economic damage to society annually as violent crime, and that its perpetrators are rarely sanctioned by imprisonment. |
| Thu 31 Oct 22:34 | John S. Rhodes | 1. Was I the only person who had to look up shibboleth? What good are my 4 college degrees? *sigh* 2. Mac writes: 'Yes the subject of prisons has nothing to do with usability, but the debate we have can help us hone our skills when we come to look at usability related issues.' Exactly right. Also, my intuition (yikes!) tells me that people like to banter about the 'side' topics that I post here. That's just part of what makes WebWord a different kind of usabilty web site. 3. I am still quite honestly interested in understanding why so few Asians in the U.S. are in jail. They are certainly a minority, but they are relatively silent, in many ways (i.e., entertainment, politics, etc.). 4. Ron writes: 'OK. Instead, why not follow the lead of my weblog by demonstrating and promoting critical thinking directly to usability-related information and providing recommended sources of information on influence and critical thinking.' Ron, that is what your weblog is for. ;-) There are times when we should focus on usability, and there are times when we shoud not. That's my opinion, of course, but I do control WebWord and that is how I feel. Fortunately, other folks like going offtopic now and then. I like the spice and I guess they do too. Does it hurt traffic or help it? I dunno; not sure that I care. Sorry, I am rambling here. My point is that Ron Zeno is more strict than John S. Rhodes about the rules. 5. I like the 'prisonsucks.com' URL. It amuses me for some reason. |
| Fri 01 Nov 09:58 | boysen | John S. Rhodes wrote: '1. Was I the only person who had to look up shibboleth?' Rather than look it up, I perceived the author's choice to use a word so obviously uncommon as his attempt to put himself (and his position on the debate) on a higher plane than the people who disagree with his position. That choice updated my opinion of the poster. Mac wrote: 'Yes the subject of prisons has nothing to do with usability, but the debate we have can help us hone our skills when we come to look at usability related issues.' While I disagree with Mac on several issues, this is not one of them. 8^) |
| Fri 01 Nov 10:39 | Ryan | Here's a little history on why 'shibboleth' has the meaning it does today. |
| Sat 02 Nov 13:09 | Mac | shibboleth It's odd, but I knew what the word menat because of its 'tone', without knowing the dictionary meaning. |
| Sat 02 Nov 18:00 | Adam Greenfield | Yow! boysen, it certainly wasn't my intention to set myself above anybody else, by word choice or any other means, and I'm sorry if anything I wrote gave you that impression. That's just the way I talk (and write), honest. It's something that's gotten me in trouble throughout my life, especially in the Army ('Get yer ass over here, college boy!'), but there's not much I can do about it without a considerable effort at continuous redaction. Heh, 'redaction.' I assume I'm talking with fairly intelligent people on Webword, anyway; even if I had thought about it, I probably would have made the same choice, considering the audience. So maybe this brings up a good question: which is more 'usable,' a longer sentence consisting of simpler words, or one word - if it's the *right* word - that makes people feel like they need to go look it up? I'd guess that most experienced usability folks would answer, 'Well, it depends.' Consider context and target audience, for example. But as we can see in the present instance, you can't please everybody. This speaks to one of the only sound critiques of the discourse of usability I've ever personally stumbled across, which is that in our quest to ensure that everyone is able to engage content or functionality 'intuitively,' we deprive them of the right to educate themselves, and maybe learn a thing or two. BTW, if memory serves, 'shibboleth' was used on an episode of the American TV show 'The West Wing.' That probably contributed to my sense that if a general audience could tolerate it, well, surely so could y'alls. Again, apologies if it somehow sounded snide. |
| Sat 02 Nov 22:39 | Kent | Why do so few Asians hold public office? The first step to electing more Asians to office is probably to get more Asians to vote. In 1998 voter registration rates were: Whites -- 68 percent & not changing Asians and Pacific Islanders -- 29 percent & not changing African Americans -- 61 percent & increasing Hispanics -- 34 percent & increasing Now the question becomes why do so few Asians that are eligible to register to vote choose to do so? Is it a language barrier? Is it cultural differences? Do Asians feel aliented from the rest of American culture and not desire to participate in it? |
| Testing the BMW iDrive system | Sat 02 Nov |
| BMWs iDrive cockpit-of-the-future concept has taken some heat since the 745i debuted. We rode shotgun with an interface design expert to see what works, what doesnt. (MadMan comments: Jef Raskin gives the iDrive system a good whipping. I can only imagine the number accidents that may be caused by people looking away from the road to a menu screen. It is in systems like these that interface design can actually mean the difference between life and death. You may find the printable version of this article easier to read. Also read: When Interfaces Kill) |
| Sat 02 Nov 00:16 | MadMan | I found this bit interesting, and intriguing: Why not simply make the iDrive system simpler? Does a driver really need 700 computer-controlled functions? Kuenzner laughs. 'The people who designed the interface, we didn't need 700 functions. We always discussed whether we need this function or that function, because it would have made it for us much easier to build a simpler system. But OK, if our marketing department says we need it, we design it in.' Sure, marketing comes up with ideas, but shouldn't the design department advise them of the impact that feature creep will have? |
| Sat 02 Nov 07:44 | (the other) JS | There is a classic disconnect between marketing and engineering. It causes reaching for 'new stuff' without the intuitive insight needed to determine what serves user needs and wants. The tools exist but are not employed as much as they could be. iDrive doesn't sound like a coherent interface design, but a list of feature requests culled from user polls. Should this be the case, there is a likely next stage which should be even worse than iDrive. That would be the 'skinable' dash interface. |
| WebWord Comment | Thu 31 Oct |
| I need to move all of my files from one server to another in the next few days. I expect that this will causes major problems. Hopefully you wont experience any problems, but if you do, Im sorry. Wish me luck on the move. |
| Fri 01 Nov 11:03 | Mac | are we there yet? |
| Fri 01 Nov 14:01 | MadMan | Are we there yet? |
| Fri 01 Nov 14:01 | MadMan | Are we there yet? |
| Fri 01 Nov 16:16 | Anonymous | not far now |
| Fri 01 Nov 16:41 | Anonymous | Momma, I gotta go pee. |
| Sat 02 Nov 07:24 | Mac | I spy with my little eye, something beginning with c |
| Celebrating Holidays and Special Occasions on Websites | Sun 27 Oct |
| (useit.com) There are two main reasons for websites to recognize holidays and special events, and both reasons fall under the same general category: To respect users as human beings, rather than simply as eyeballs or a source of e-commerce transactions. Commemorating special events is a way for websites to connect to users and be seen as welcoming environments, rather than places focused solely on money grubbing. |
| Mon 28 Oct 06:05 | Mac | If WebWord and John are seen as promoters of NNGroup reports then I suggest you (anonymouse) read some of the previous postings on Webword: Email Newsletters Pick Up Where Websites Leave Off 30th Sep 2002 10 Best Intranets of 2002 3rd Sep 2002 Why Doc Searls Doesn't Sell Any Books (revisited) 18th Aug 2002 User Empowerment and the Fun Factor 11th Jul 2002 Usability for Senior Citizens 28th Apr 2002 Site Map Usability 8th Jan 2002 As for this(report teaser) article, I would be interested in the international problems with 'Holidays'. In the UK we are bombarded with Coke adverts at Chrismas (or Xmas for us atheists) stating 'Holidays are coming... Holidays are coming...'. Xmas is not 'The Holidays' in the UK. Many religious holidays can cause offence in certain countries and often highlight the parochial (unconscious perhaps) views of the site publisher. I would like to see some sites promoting alternate celebrations like 'Peterloo Day', or 'Don't Attack Iraq Day'. My main criticism of John would be this: I want to buy some WebWord reports rather than spend my cash on NNGroup stuff. And for a bit of light entertainment here are some 'Freudian URLs' from useit.com and nngroup.com : useit.com -> Dummy NN/g - Empty Point Of Interest: I will be attending the NNGroup Intranet Usability Tutorial in London on 13th November. Will any other webworders be there? I'll be the one registered under 'usabilitymustdie.com' (I hope the name fits on my badge, as there was no length restriction on the input field on the registration form). I will be in the hotel in the evening of the 12th and will be going to see Michael Moore on the 13th. Please Note: I get £250 pounds for every person I can drag along to this 'Tutorial'. So if you are going please mention that I mentioned this attraction on WebWord, which made you decide to attend. |
| Mon 28 Oct 08:48 | Anonymous | Is this how people are treated here? Ask a question and get persecuted. How childish. |
| Mon 28 Oct 10:32 | Kent Sievers | The first anonymous poster was a bit over zealous, but... hello? Usability gurus strive to understand users. So why do they have such a hard time building communities? Use a registration system and the other tools needed to properly run a community. There are responsibilities inherent in such an endeavor as this one. |
| Mon 28 Oct 13:49 | JB | At the end of the day how much can you say about posting holiday content on your site - 65 pages of what? |
| Mon 28 Oct 14:12 | Anonymous | Completely off topic, but writing Xmas isn't necessarily an atheistic thing to do at all. |
| Mon 28 Oct 14:21 | John S. Rhodes | Kent wrote: 'Use a registration system and the other tools needed to properly run a community.' 1. Considering that I pay for all expenses and invest many hours of time each week, this is tough. Yet, I agree with you Kent! 2. I definitely think that I need a more robust content management system. However, that will take even more of my time and money. *sigh* -- Another Anonymous wrote: 'Is this how people are treated here? Ask a question and get persecuted. How childish.' I discount your comment, almost completely. Sorry, but the question was somewhat hostile: 'If nothing, why does it persist with linking to a sales message?' That is just bait from a troll. The fact I am even writing anything about this is a waste. Final note: Are people really persecuting the Anonymous poster? I don't think so... |
| Mon 28 Oct 15:30 | Anonymous | Allow me to rephrase. Is it healthy for a web site operator, and presumably community builder, to respond to rude users with sarcasm and disdain? The underlying beef the first poster voiced has been voiced by many usability professionals on this and other web sites. Why not treat the question seriously instead of stooping to his/her level? |
| Mon 28 Oct 15:51 | Mac | On various occasions British national newspapers will have different headlines in different regions. So in England it may see 'The Scots are Racist towards the English', while the Scot edition may read 'Scots loved by every nation in Europe'. How come web sites don't present me with my personalised 'holiday' greeting? I'm still waiting for one of the bloody dot coms to wish me a happy birthday, as I've given out my date of birth (22 Nov 1965) about 84 times now, and I've never had a 'happy bithday' or even a 'sorry we forgot your birthday'. No all I get is crappy gift ideas in my Gold Box. Hmmm what have I got today. (Sound of tinfoil tearing). Oooohhhhhh, its a lovely Le Creuset Soup Pot. I don't really like soup, and I can't even cook soup (do you cook soup, or do you just heat it?). Sorry if I'm rambling today. The clocks went back yesterday, and it always turns me a bit loopy for a week or so. Re: The 'Persecution' Someone can spend 20 seconds writing a silly comment that they may regret 5 minutes later. It can take 20 minutes to compose a 'fair minded' reply that the original poster may never even bother to read. I've written silly messages and mails in my time, but I've spent a lot longer replying to other peoples silly mails and messages. I reckon that means someone owes me some answers to some silly questions. I would guess that John has acquired enough credit to play around in Google Answers for a month of Sundays. I guess what I'm saying is. We're only human for gawdsakes (well I am anyway... I think?) |
| Mon 28 Oct 15:59 | John S. Rhodes | Allow me to rephrase. Is it healthy for a web site operator, and presumably community builder, to respond to rude users with sarcasm and disdain? The underlying beef the first poster voiced has been voiced by many usability professionals on this and other web sites. Why not treat the question seriously instead of stooping to his/her level? Good point. I apologize to you and to every other person here. I shouldn't have been a jackass; I should have dealt with the issue with a clear mind and fair tongue. |
| Mon 28 Oct 21:01 | Lydia | John, you can respond to the issue with a clear mind and a fair tongue, and that's nice. But I don't think you should be slammed for a sarcastic response, because if someone came into my office and suddenly demanded to know what sort of royalty I got for linking to another website from our corporate site, I think my first response would not be clear-minded and fair. I think it would be to call security. What this vaguely sarcastic paragraph is saying is that perhaps if the poster had been clear-minded and fair himself, it would have elicited the same sort of response. |
| Tue 29 Oct 01:08 | MadMan | Mac and I are just 8 days apart? (I'm Nov. 30) Woweee! (Of course, we're also ten years apart, but that's another matter.) What annoys me is that Amazon knows I live in India, but persists with showing me things like the KitchenAid KP2671XBU Professional 6-Quart Stand Mixer, Cobalt Blue, which they know can't be shipped to India. Actually, I'd like Amazon to offer, say, free shipping on any purchases made on a birthday. Now that would make some people happy. |
| Tue 29 Oct 02:11 | Mac | MadMan, you don't look 46 mate. You've aged very well |
| Tue 29 Oct 03:35 | Mac | As a child, my brothers and I used to go to the saturday morning picture show, where we would see the latest Flash Gordon episode (They never got out of the kock-a-doodey car!) with three hundred other tots. Towards the end of the show, the zoo keeper (or compere as the poor sod was known) would stand on the stage (while being pelted with boiled sweets) and give gifts out to the kids who had had birthdays that week. In one year my brothers and I had twelve birthdays between the five of us. Now why don't some web sites do something like that? |
| Sat 02 Nov 03:21 | daniel szuc | Happy Chanukah!!! - Daniel :) |
| The Cranky User: Could you repeat that? | Fri 01 Nov |
| (ibm.com) In the end, users are programmers; they are people who come up with a series of operations they wish a computer to perform and direct the computer to perform those operations. |
| Sat 02 Nov 00:21 | Chris | Automation was always easy on the Amiga with ARexx. It is a relatively easy way to bring applications together and is as strong as each application's implementation. Even visually-based programs, such as bitmap editors, can be controlled programmatically leaving open effects that may be more difficult to achieve by hand. The language takes a little learning, but is rewarding when applications start dancing to your tune. It doesn't say much for VB that automation is perceived to be lacking when that language is given complete control over the most popular office software in use. Though VB cannot possibly be described as a beginner friendly language when compared to the likes of Rebol or even ARexx... |
| sued | Thu 31 Oct |
| for hacking a URL, which is a fundamental navigation technique that many users employ every day. Lets go a little further into the grey area: a reporter for Wired guessed the password for Saddam Husseins e-mail account, and published a story about what he found there. Is this ethical? (Comments: Tough, but interesting question.) |
| Thu 31 Oct 23:47 | MadMan | This is stupid. A Web site is a public place. If you put private or confidential information on a publically accessible server without any kind of password protection, then it could be argued that you were not concerned about the sensitivity of that information. It could also be argued that you're mind-numbingly stupid, and deserve what happened to you. The reporter has not illegally broken into anything. He has not pretended to be anyone else, hacked into somebody else's account, or attempted to access a password-protected area. |
| Fri 01 Nov 02:16 | Matt Round | Yeah, the Reuters reporter wasn't trying to gain access to a restricted area. Things can get rather murky with security holes which can be easily exploited via URLs (e.g. it used to be possible to view the global.asa files, often including database passwords etc., of many sites, including Microsoft UK, simply by adding a few characters to the URL), I guess it comes down to whether the person is trying to circumvent security measures. I don't consider not publicising a URL a security measure. |
| Fri 01 Nov 03:59 | Alan Fisher | The Swedish company's legal bozo says that they want a legal opinion on what can be considered public and private information on a web site. I'll give them the advice for free - if it's password protected, it's private. If it isn't, it's not. Whether the URL is available 'through normal channels' or not is irrelevant. |
| Fri 01 Nov 04:10 | Jim Kalbach | Gotta go with the others on this one: a no-brainer. Is it that the company really didn't know the difference between secure/password protected sites and public websites, or is their legal department back pedalling? I suspect the latter. ANYONE who has used the web seems to intrisically know that once you post something in an open area the whole world can see it. In fact, this is exactly why companies have websites: to communicate to the outside world (the whole world). It is what makes the web attractive and exactly what digital agencies sometimes sell. That they didn't know someone could access the documents is highly unlikely, or at least incredibly dumb. |
| Fri 01 Nov 09:11 | Anonymous | The developer(s) that allowed that to happen is either incredibly lazy or stupid. How could someone that knows ANYTHING about running a website allow that too happen? Sounds like laziness to me. By the way, it's a no brainer. The reporter should definetly not be liable. |
| Fri 01 Nov 09:53 | Dennis G. Jerz | Madman writes: 'The reporter has not illegally broken into anything. He has not pretended to be anyone else, hacked into somebody else's account, or attempted to access a password-protected area.' But that's exactly what the Wired reporter did when he hacked into Saddam Hussein's e-mail. I'm really more interested in THAT. I completely agree that there's nothing wrong with hacking a URL, but Madman, what do you say about guessing the password? |
| Fri 01 Nov 10:07 | boysen | Another example of how lawyers and the suits they bring cause more harm (wasting time, money, etc.) than good. (Don't interpret this comment to mean I wish all lawyers instantly vaporized.) |
| Fri 01 Nov 13:55 | MadMan | Dennis, That was a different situation. The question is if the reporter was 'breaking in'. I'd argue that it was. There are two aspects to this in my opinion: a) Intent: The reporter clearly knew that he didn't have unprotected access to the email account. It was protected by a password, albeit weak. He intentionally attempted to bypass the regular security measures, and succeeded. b) Public v/s private information: What's in Saddam's email box is private information, which was not openly available to anyone else. It was also protected by a password. In contrast, the reporter in this case made no attempt to break into any computer system, and merely accessed data in a public place. Yes, a website without any protective measures for data IS in the public. For instance, if John Rhodes linked to an image in his IMAGES folder, and then I hacked the URL to get www.webword.com/images and saw the directory listing of all the images in that folder, and then downloaded one of those files, I'm not breaking in. I'm just accessing material available to anyone/everyone else. (Note to John: Leaving directory listing on is crappy security. Creates BIG security holes. Your hosting company sucks for leaving that on by default.) |
| Fri 01 Nov 16:21 | Frank Lynch | If the quetion is was the behavior unethical, in my opinion, it may have been ethical to break in, but it wasn't ethical to do anything with the info beyond alert the company and write up their goof afterwards. Legal? Don't know. And I don't know that the discussion should be limited to financial statements. A company might be soft launching a section of a web site about an as-yet unlaunched product. The company is certainly stupid, but the person hacking the url has to know they're going into unfriendly territory: it's not like they're clicking on a link. And of course I think the host company is a complete idiot. |
| Fri 01 Nov 16:47 | Anonymous | Hacking a URL is not unethical. It's taught as a navigational tip in some 'Introduction to the Internet' classes. Stumbling upon unlinked content is not unethical. Alerting the public to unlinked and obviously meant-to-be-hidden content _is_ unethical, but it is not illegal. It's just plain sloppy security, like undressing in your front living room, then calling the cops when a door-to-door salesman sees you naked. |
| Talking with Jesse James Garrett | Thu 31 Oct |
| (Boxes and Arrows) Everybody says Amazon’s interaction design is a big factor in the company’s success—why don’t I know the names of any of the people responsible for it? Why do most consultancies hide their talented staff, whose expertise makes their success possible, behind a faceless corporate identity? (Comments: Interesting observation. Why dont we know more about the folks behind Amazon? I never thought much about that. Do you know any people working on usability and/or information architecture at Amazon?) |
| Thu 31 Oct 23:28 | Anonymous | Everybody says McDonald's marketing, taste engineering and experience control is a big factor in the burger chain's success-why don't I know the names of any of the people responsible for it? |
| Fri 01 Nov 04:03 | Alan Fisher | But people in the fast food industry probably DO know the names of the people behind McDonald's success. Similarly, people in the motor industry probably know the names of the designers of the top-selling cars (Mondeo, Vectra, BMW 5 series etc.). But the man in the street wouldn't know them from Adam. In Amazon's case, you'd think that people who are heavily involved in the web industry would know a few of their designer / usability engineer's names. But we don't. |
| Fri 01 Nov 09:37 | Anonymous | I doubt people in the food industry know each other. VPs and CEOs will know each other. The mid-level people who are the real brains won't know each other unless they communicate online in a mailing list or web community. The only web designers I know post on mailing lists or web forums, or are independent consultants who operate their own sites, or write for free web sites like B&A. This has nothing to do with Amazon, Google, Yahoo, etc. hiding its staff. It has to do with how much the individual employees promote themselves online. We don't hear much from the real brains in the industry because they're usually too busy working. Such companies do not appreciate employees discussing their internal work publicly. That's done in the media by higher-ups experienced with handling journalists. Instead, we most commonly hear from the consultants and self-promoters. |
| Fri 01 Nov 09:58 | Bryan Hara | Who cares? Why is everyone so concerned with being recognized? Is this really news? |
| Fri 01 Nov 10:13 | Mac | Knowing the names of people who do things is very important. It turns what we do into a human activity rather than a bland corporate one. We should all know who Wes Cherry is. It is important to know 'who did that' - and it's a much bigger issue than simply 'denial of the author's rights'. It is extremely important for makers to know about other makers - and for users to know who made the things they use. Dust or Magic by Bob Hughes Signing our work creates a connection between the developer and the user. The user can see who created the software and how to get in touch with that person. Software Craftmanship by Pete McBreen |
| Fri 01 Nov 10:20 | boysen | Great interview. I look forward to reading the book. My biggest hurdle is always having to convince internal stakeholders that IA and usability practices are truly important. I am a very poor 'convincer.' Maybe this book can help me. |
| Fri 01 Nov 10:36 | John S. Rhodes | 'Who cares? Why is everyone so concerned with being recognized?' In this instance, I don't care about recognition or the human element. Instead, I care about knowing what education, skills, and history these people have. I'd also like to know more about how the sausage is made behind the scenes. How is Amazon different? Is it different? |
| Sites that don't click | Tue 29 Oct |
| (37Signals) We reviewed the home pages of 10 prominent retailers and found that all of them displayed product images that were either non-clickable or were clickable but did not lead to a page where the featured product could be bought. (MadMan comments: 1) This report takes a small point and stretches it out over 10 pages, each just reiterating the same issue. 2) Does 30 minutes of surfing to see which sites allow you to click home page images qualify as research? 3) Joel Spolsky says, 37signals have made themselves sound like those annoying 20-something clueless web designers from 1996, telling everybody you just dont GET IT. (He has also posted some stuff on their weblog) And lastly... 4) ALT is not a tag, 37Signals. Its an attribute. IMG is a tag. :p |
| Tue 29 Oct 13:40 | Anonymous | Well that was a one sides post, any reason your not sharing the positive reviews? |
| Tue 29 Oct 13:47 | MadMan | Well, Mr. Anonymous from Connecticut, I've linked to the discussion so people can read it for themselves. The comments are simply my take on the topic. Now Webworders are free to agree or disagree with me. Or even add their own take. We love discussion here at Webword. :) |
| Tue 29 Oct 15:40 | Mac | The sites featured seem to be for heavily 'branded' products, where you are paying a premium for the name and the 'consumer experience'. I can understand why they would not want to sell lots of products on the web as it would diminish the 'brand experience'. Having your posh clothing delivered to your door by a postman isn't the same as being smarmed over by a 'brand ambassador'. I have dealt with a few 'brandoleroes' in my time, and their position does actually make sense when you understand their marketplace. They would rather sell 10 items at £100 a pop, than 150 at £10 a pop. On the report itself, I think it's fine that the 37 folk produce this to prove that they are capable of selling (in the future) reports over the web. It would be interesting if someone did a comparison of this report against a NNGroup and UIE report. As for their choice of subject, I wonder if they have taken such a narrow scope because it's easier to produce a good looking sample if you don't have to spend too much time actually doing the 'research'. I think that Joel is making some good points, but is being a bid rude about it. I imagine Joel is over 20 now and thinks its OK to beat up on the youngsters. |
| Tue 29 Oct 16:23 | Matt Round | That's OK, they're probably still laughing at him for saying Netscape shouldn't have scrapped the v4 code. I thought the report was OK, it simply pointed out something some people may not have thought about. Perhaps labelling it 'research' was a mistake though, it implies a more scientific approach. |
| Tue 29 Oct 18:37 | Ron Zeno | 2) Does 30 minutes of surfing to see which sites allow you to click home page images qualify as 'research'? Yes. Granted, it might not be very valuable research, but it appear to be well done, which is more than one can expect from many other 'researchers'. 3) Joel Spolsky says, '37signals have made themselves sound like those annoying 20-something clueless web designers from 1996, telling everybody 'you just don't GET IT.'' One consultant makes an ad hominem attack against a competing consultant. Why do we care, other than to note Joel's lack of professionalism? On the positive side, at least people are critically examining the report and the arguments concerning it. |
| Tue 29 Oct 19:05 | Lydia | I'm really surprised to see Joel being so vicious. I've seen him talk about things he doesn't buy into before, but he's never been so jerky about it. He's been wrong, like all of us, but at least he writes out a clear thought with supporting evidence. This just seems like a slam. |
| Tue 29 Oct 23:11 | MadMan | That's OK, they're probably still laughing at him for saying Netscape shouldn't have scrapped the v4 code. Why? Netscape is in the dumpster now, isn't it? I'm really surprised to see Joel being so vicious. Well, yes, that was what I wanted to point out. Be sure to read his points in the linked discussion too. |
| Wed 30 Oct 06:54 | Matt Round | Netscape are in the dumpster because they tried to do a bit too much and took waaaayyyy too long (no, I don't know what their programmers have been doing with their time either). I agree with a lot of Joel's recent clarification (scroll down), in that they should have left XUL til later, but not with his original assertion that rewriting from scratch is always a bad idea. If you've got good programmers working with a piece of fundamentally-flawed junk it's often better to let them start from scratch rather than force them to do turd-polishing duties. |
| Wed 30 Oct 09:13 | Randy | Mac said: 'I can understand why they would not want to sell lots of products on the web as it would diminish the 'brand experience'.' Please. How does adding a link to a product YOU ARE SELLING diminish the 'brand experience?' |
| Wed 30 Oct 14:37 | Mac | Randy, here's a few off the top of my head. Diamonds are forever Snowboards Harley-Davidson Speakers Eckharts Cigars Car Audio |
| Wed 30 Oct 14:48 | Phil Colbert | Agreed Mac, but these people aren't not selling online. They ARE, but making it harder. Not quite the same thing, what? |
| Wed 30 Oct 15:07 | Mac | A slighly picky point, but will you agree that for the seller it is not always best to go too far on a first date? |
| Thu 31 Oct 09:40 | James | Mac, um no. ;) Bottom line, forgetting all the importance of branding, is to sell products. Having a customer buying, and then wearing your product will ALWAYS be the best way to enforce branding. You've got a happy customer who gave you money. |
| Thu 31 Oct 16:35 | Lydia | You guys have seen 'Swingers', right? Remember that scene where they are trying to find the hip L.A. club, but it's in a generic alleyway and has no sign or discernable features except for a guy sitting outside the door and smoking? People, especially teens, like hip stuff that doesn't do any overt marketing. As pretentious as it sounds, Abercrombie & Fitch (to use an example from the 37 signals site) probably realize they get sales by being less obvious. They know girls want to swarm to their stores in packs, giggling and pushing each other, drooling over the huge picture of the naked guy in the front window (more giggling), and trying to cram into one changing booth so they can see how the clothes look. A few of them might not have credit cards that they can purchase with, or parents willing to buy the stuff for them online, or they may just be like many who don't want to buy clothes that they haven't tried on. Let's face it, A&F's target audience does not include people over 30. So, yes, branding does have a huge influence on site design. If this same target audience went there and all they say was marketing, marketing, marketing, they'd get bored, or they'd feel cheapened. Kids like to think (and will allow the suspension of disbelief) that they are not considered a faceless number - that corporations are trying to create an experience for them. |
| Thu 31 Oct 17:54 | Jason Fried | Overt marketing? All we're asking them to do is make the image of the product they are featuring on their homepage clickable and linked to a page where I can buy it. If I like it, I should be able to buy it with minimum fuss. If I want to be 'hip' and struggle to find the item, fine -- that's my choice. I just don't understand the logic of making it very difficult to buy something I want to buy from an online retailer who's spent millions to sell products online. |
| Thu 31 Oct 22:41 | Eric Scheid | Another example of why open slather selling can be bad: One of my clients is a wholesale supplier for hair and beauty salons. It's a good business with close to 100% margins. My client is relatively new in the market, just a few years, and the reason they have succeeded so well is because they capitalised on a mistake the incumbent of the time made, and have assiduously avoided repeating that mistake themselves. The mistake: selling retail to the public. The only sell to salon businesses. Not to the public. The moment they do their salon customers will turn on them (fair enough since they would then be competing for the retail trade). Furthermore, the pickings in retail would be thin, given the preponderance of existing discount outlets. |
| Fri 01 Nov 00:05 | Randy | Eric said: 'The mistake: selling retail to the public.' How does this have anything to do with the 37signals report? It was on retail e-commerce sites that sell to the public. |
| RealAroma(R). | Tue 29 Oct |
| ..introduces a whole new dimension to the man/machine interface game. The dimension of smell. WebWord asked Does your web site stink? What does it smell like? (look up) |
| Tue 29 Oct 02:30 | Mac | UsabilityMustDie smells 'like a rotting corpse with gaping holes for eyes' - Coyote and the Ghost |
| Tue 29 Oct 18:57 | Lydia | Mac, I beg to differ. Marzipan is almond paste, so it is off-white or beige. Plus, it is heavenly. I could eat it until stuffed without being sick. Mmmmm. It's the dark chocolate that does me in, so I get the little sphere-shaped nuggets or the fruit-shaped marzipan. Mmmmmmmmmmm. |
| Wed 30 Oct 14:48 | Mac | useit.com smells of cardigans bbc.co.uk smells of lavender boo.com smells of poo.moc microsoft.com smells of pumpkins boxesandarrows.com smells of string |
| Wed 30 Oct 15:23 | Anonymous | ...and your father smelt of elderberries! |
| Will the U.S. fall behind in tech? | Mon 28 Oct |
| (CNN) What has top executives of arguably the worlds two most important tech companies saying that the U.S. may soon cede its tech leadership? Three fundamental concerns: what both see as a disastrous diminution in national commitment to IT research and development, a dearth of engineering graduates, and the low penetration of broadband compared with other countries. (Comments: Why Are U.S. Mathematics Students Falling Behind Their International Peers? and U.S. Students Continue to Lag in Math, Science) |
| Tue 29 Oct 02:58 | Mac | The US may fall behind in tech, but as long as it has the Smart Bombs, Cruise Missiles and the will to control the oil reserves in the Middle East then it won't matter that much. (Except for the poor schmucks who lose their jobs, but then there's always a bit more room in the prisons for them). |
| Tue 29 Oct 03:27 | Adam Greenfield | I gotta tell ya, I use to believe boogieman shibboleths like this story, until I moved to Japan - ostensibly home to some of them math & science whiz kids populating the upper reaches of these studies. The endemic lack of even basic reasoning or critical thinking skills evinced here, coupled with the invariable privileging of feats of rote 'mastery' over lateral, problem-solving thought, convinces me America has little to fear - from Japan, at least. That's as long as we can keep our kids from being shot, of course. |
| Tue 29 Oct 10:59 | Phil Colbert | So Adam, you're saying that the Japanese are basically dumb? Interesting. |
| Wed 30 Oct 00:35 | Adam Greenfield | Phil, that's a distortion of what I said and you know it. I'm quite positive the spread of intelligence in Japanese kids is similar to what is observed elsewhere. What I implied above (and what I believe) is that that intelligence, along with intellectual curiosity and the ability to think around corners, is systematically suppressed by an educational system thoroughly unsuited to the 21st century. |
| Wed 30 Oct 10:02 | Francis Wu | The US will still maintain ownership of much of the leading technologies, that's for sure. They will invariably to this by sticking to current business trends, one of which includes mergers and acquisitions. Where the US will eventually fail is at the IT employment level. The US has already lost much of its strong manufacturing capabilities. Also, this so-called US service economomy is beginning to shift abroad. If history has taught us anything, in order to stay competitive, US businesses will eventually seek foreign and cheaper IT people. Then again, who says it isn't already happening? |
| WebWord Comment | Sun 27 Oct |
| If you want to increase purchases, is it better to give people a choice of 5 items or 30 items? Vote now! |
| Mon 28 Oct 06:35 | Mac | Heather and I have just started shopping at a different supermarket for our weekly shop. We moved from Sainsburys because they had just extended the size of the store and re-arranged the layout. We found it was taking us an extra 20 minutes to do our shopping and we had many more decisions to make (which of the 15 varieties of bleach should we buy). We now shop at Asda which has a lot less choice and is also a lot cheaper. We can now do our shop in under an hour (down from 80 to 90 minutes) and it is a lot less stressful as we have many less decisions to make. |
| Tue 29 Oct 10:43 | JB | I think that for someone to purchase, the offering needs to be relevant to me. So 5 or 30 means nothing if it is all Amazon Gold Box material for example. I know it is crap, but why do I still click on the gold box? |
| Tue 29 Oct 15:49 | Mac | JB, it's a bit like Picking a Scab |
| Tue 29 Oct 19:18 | Lydia | If you want to increase purchasing, give more choices. If you want to increase return shopping, offer fewer, more relevant choices. It's a paradox, but they are two separate things. More choice means attracting a larger crowd that is more likely to buy, but perhaps not come back if they are baffled by the large selection. Mac, supermarkets rearrange things specifically because they want you to search the aisles. They are hoping you will see something you want and put it in your trolley. Most people shop at supermarkets for geographic reasons, so there isn't much drop-off. |
| Introducing the Microcontent Client | Fri 25 Oct |
| (Anil Dash) The primary advantage of the microcontent client over existing Internet technologies is that it will enable the sharing of meme-sized chunks of information using a consistent set of navigation, user interface, storage, and networking technologies. In short, a better user interface for task-based activities, and a more powerful system for reading, searching, annotating, reviewing, and other information-based activities on the Internet. |
| Mon 28 Oct 15:59 | Anonymous | Or if we're even less careful we'll end up with web pages crusted over with tons of useless visual garbage. Crawling bugs and post it notes? That's your idea of megacontent? The point isn't that there's only 'one true' content format. There's room for many. There's an audience of people out there that are too busy or are on bandwidth-budgeted conditions (laptops, handhelds, etc) that find tremendous value in actual CONTENT without the frills. |
| Tue 29 Oct 17:58 | Matt Round | 'Crawling bugs and post it notes? That's your idea of megacontent?' No, although that does remind me of something, can't think what though. I was merely making the point that not all CONTENT consists of little bits of text, the Web needs its novels/comics/popup books as well as the newspaper clippings. Stuff that's 'useless visual garbage' to you may be appealing and interesting design to someone else which enhances the meaning of the CONTENT, or perhaps even is the CONTENT. |
| XUL Defines New User Interface Options | Sun 27 Oct |
| (DevX) XUL is a new Netscape/Mozilla XML dialect that describes the elements of a traditional user interface. Faster and cleaner than HTML, it might just be the quickest way yet to code a UI. |
| Mon 28 Oct 09:16 | Maj. Brown | XUL is pretty neat, but it still needs more time to mature. XUL is also pretty verbose-- you're smothered in tags up to your eyeballs. The simplest interface tool I've seen (and I've tried a dozen) is Rebol/View: Rebol.com The runtime interpreter is less than 400 KB and scripts run unmodified on 40 platforms. Here's a screenshot and code for a simple applet: HTML Source Viewer In approx. 20 lines, the applet displays an interface that downloads the source of any web page and displays it in a text area. |
| Mon 28 Oct 11:25 | Chris | I have to agree, REBOL/View has a very expressive UI dialect that integrates neatly with the REBOL language. |
| Tue 29 Oct 00:02 | Anonymous | xul is the next big markup for web stuff you will like it :-) |
| Tue 29 Oct 16:35 | Maj. Brown | Yes, my comments about REBOL were a bit off topic, I suppose. But I have a small problem with investing in a technology like XUL solely because it's going to be 'the next big thing.' No offense, but markup tags are sooo lame. Free your mind; try REBOL, you'll like it. |
| Password Usability & Typability | Mon 28 Oct |
| (Zen Haiku) One thing that bothered me is that its a lot different typing when you only see a bunch of ******s show up. So Ive set up a previewing page you can save to your computer and use to test how easy it is to type a password. |
| Tue 29 Oct 03:09 | Mac | I tend to choose my passwords based on the 'rhythm' that I can type them at. I remember them by the patterns that they make rather than the words, it's almost like more code for me. I also remember my PIN numbers this way, and it causes me real problems when I have to use a keypad with a 'non standard' layout. |
| Tue 29 Oct 10:48 | JB | The problem with the Do's and Don'ts is that at the end of the day you tend to choose a password that you can remember. This gets used over and over again because we, as humans, have way to much to remember on a daily basis to also have to remember maybe another 30 passwords for things we sign in/up for. This is the time to move to some other form of ID like biometrics etc. |
| Tue 29 Oct 16:10 | Adam Kalsey | The problem with biometrics is that once it's compromised, it can't be changed. If someone manages to make a copy of your fingerprint, voiceprint, or whatever, they will always have access to anything protected solely by biometric security. If you lose your fingerprint to someone else, you can't change it. You can change a password. The best form of authentication currently in use combines something you have (like an ATM card) with something you know (like your PIN). Without both of these items, you can't access your bank account. This concept needs to be combined with biometrics. Combine something you know (a password) with something you are (a fingerprint). For even greater security, add in something you have, like a smartcard. |
| Blast Rocks U.S. Base in Southern Afghanistan | Sun 27 Oct |
| About 8,000 American soldiers are in Afghanistan pursuing remnants of the Taliban and bin Ladens al Qaeda network. Kandahar airport has become one of the main U.S. bases. (Comments: Are there really only 8,000 American soldiers in Afghanistan? Is the United States military doing more than the media is reporting? Was the war in Afghanistan as clean and easy as the media made it sound? How skeptical of the media are you?) |
| Tue 29 Oct 03:27 | Mac | All of the media has it's hidden (or not so hidden) agenda. I think the trick is to get as wide a selection of biased reports as you can. Newsweek says, 'The benefit in fighting a proxy-style war in Afghanistan was victory on the cheap-cheap, at any rate, in American blood. 'The cost, Newsweek's investigation has established, is that American forces were working intimately with 'allies' who committed what could well qualify as war crimes.' Socialist Worker 7 Sep 2002 The film tells what happened after the fall of the city of Konduz to allies of the US. Thousands of prisoners were packed into airtight containers, 200-300 in each box. On route to prison about half of them suffocated to death or were shot. Others were butchered as the containers were tipped into a mass grave in the desert. Socialist Worker 6 July 2002 'The Americans talk about the Taliban and Al Qaida. What is Al Qaida to me? This is my home, my children, my land, and it is all in danger because of these fighters who are with the Americans.' Socialist Worker 18 May 2002 |
| Tue 29 Oct 11:11 | mcw | It helped that lots of Afganis did not really like the Taliban or the non-Afgans (Suadis, Yemenis, etc.) that were in their country. Once the tide turned on the Taliban, and it was apparant that the Americans were in the fight for real, the local support dried up and they had nowhere to go. There is still low level insurrection and tribal warfare going on, I think this will continue for the foreseeable future because tribal conflicts have been a part of the region for generations. The locals can be pretty cruel to each other. It's a problem to associate with the 'Northern Alliance' and then not get tarred by their retributions and feuds with the other groups. It's a tough balancing act. |
| Tue 29 Oct 15:46 | Mac | > tribal conflicts have been a part of the region for generations Would you call the cold war, the vietnam war, the korean war, the american revolution, the american civil war, ww1, ww2, etc. etc. a 'tribal conflict'. |
| The Dynamic Duo of Information Architecture | Tue 22 Oct |
| (WebWord) Finally, we wanted to give something back to the IA and usability communities, and to the people who have supported our efforts through thick and thin. In this spirit of generosity peppered with a touch of enlightened self-interest, we offer a free online book chapter, available exclusively from WebWord.com. (Comments: For those folks that dont know, Lou and Peter wrote Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 2nd Edition. In this interview they answer about 10 questions. Worth reading, I think.) |
| Mon 28 Oct 15:13 | Mac | Peter, please retract your retraction. > 'Because you're the only one who misspells it 'journada'. No you're not. If you search for 'Journada' on google images, or google web you will see that your friend is telling you fibs. And even if they weren't, it's still wrong to dismiss your comment just because you are one person. You wouldn't be the only person to misspell it, you would be the first person. If HP did something about the first person, then there wouldn't be a second person. I treat every 'failed' search as an opportunity to improve my intranet search. If checking for alternates is a factor in the speed of the HP search then they need to re-design their search engine. That's like saying you don't allow searches with Z in the words because the Z key on your keyboard doesn't work (bad example, but it's the best I can come up with in 20 seconds). I have just tried to search for 'Journada' on the HP site (US) I get two results, whilst on the UK site I get one result. This means that someone in HP has put the meta tag 'Journada' in their keywords list to try and solve your personal problem. However this is almost worst than getting no results, as a user may think that HP understand that 'Journada' = 'Jornada' and that these are the only results available. I see a site search as being rather like a flare gun. When I perform a search I am getting a glimpse of the structures and vistas of the site I am searching for a split second. A flare that only show me a small disjointed view is much less useful that one that shows me a glimpse, however brief, of the bones of the site. And while I'm on the subject. When I search google for 'information visualisation' I don't want it to say Did you mean:'information visualization', I want it to take the results for both searches and combine them into one set of results for me. Whenever google says 'Did you mean... it's highlighting a failure of the search engine and it's trying to show off and illustrate how clever it is instead of giving me what I want. But that doesn't mean that I want it automatically jumping to another set of wrong results automatically as it seems to do sometime. Ahhhhh. Glad I've got that off my chest. |
| Mon 28 Oct 16:15 | Peter Morville | Sorry, but it's my policy to never retract retractions...I'm too afraid of having to retract retracted retractions. But I am glad you made the case for handling Journada...there is a cost/benefit tradeoff here and ultimately I agree that the marginal cost of handling another equivalent term should be pretty low... |
| Tue 29 Oct 03:38 | Mac | What if you detracted a rectracted detraction instead? |
| Roll-up TV screens to hit living rooms | Mon 28 Oct |
| (CNN) Two British companies said on Monday they would join forces to become a world leader in the technology of glowing plastics, which by 2005 should yield the first roll-up computer screens and TVs. (Comments: Have Roll-Up TV, Will Travel) |
| Tue 29 Oct 03:03 | Mac | Imagine: People could have their stars and stripes fluttering on their poles, displaying images of the latest 'enemies of the state' alternating with adverts for Coke and Cluster Bombs. (Please excuse the anti-American comments today, it's nothing personal) |
| Analysis: The Future of the Book | Tue 29 Oct |
| (upi.com) Printed books in the 17th and 18th centuries were derided by their contemporaries as inferior to their laboriously hand-made antecedents and to the incunabula. These complaints are reminiscent of current criticisms of the new media (Internet, e-books): shoddy workmanship, shabby appearance, and rampant piracy. |
| Tue 29 Oct 02:41 | Mac | See Also : Pamphleteers and Web Sites (bricklin.com) One other feature of 18th C. pamphleteering deserves mention, one that may have a lot of relevance in other countries today where the Web is used for purposes of political insurrection. That is, the pamphlet was preferred by the rebels because it did not provide any target for retaliation by the crown. It was a guerilla form of publishing in which an individual or small revolutionary group could make a point, then disappear. |
| IAnything Goes | Thu 24 Oct |
| (Digital Web Magazine) What is good for the user, however, is not always good for the business. Users were happy, but businesses failed. (Comments: Examples of users being happy but businesses failing?) |
| Mon 28 Oct 17:32 | George Olsen | I agree intangibles are a more difficult sell, especially these days, but they are a recognized part of the balance sheet. A restaurant with tasty food, polite service, pleasant atmoshere and a good location will be valued more than one that lacks these -- even if their other financials are identical. The difficulty of course is tying specific factors to the bottom line. As you said, it requires creativity and sometimes reframing the question away from ROI (which is actually a specific financial calculation) to the larger question of 'creating value' which can be demostrated in a wider range of ways. |
| Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 | Sun 27 Oct |
| W3C published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) as a Recommendation in May 1999. This Working Draft for version 2.0 builds on WCAG 1.0. It has the same aim: to explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities and to define target levels of accessibility. Incorporating feedback on WCAG 1.0, this Working Draft of version 2.0 focuses on checkpoints. (Comments: Thanks Kent.) |
| Mon 28 Oct 07:45 | Anonymous | Important to note that this is a W3C Working Draft. |