Webword Statistics - Recent Comments

last updated:16 Aug 2002 13: 49 Webword time, or 16 Aug 2002 18:49 UK time

Webword Statistics - Recent Comments
(Comments added for week ending Sun 07 Jul 2002) | View Other Weeks

Ill be on a (much needed) vacation from 4-July-2002 through 11-July-2002. I will have very limited access to email and the web. You might want to visit some of the Hot Sites. Thats all for now. Please take care of yourself while I am gone!

Wed 03 Jul 22:35 | John S. Rhodes | What am I doing on 4-July-2002 at 7:30 AM EST? Salomon Smith Barney Highland Park Triathlon July 4, 2002. Highland Park, Hooper Road, Endwell, NY. Individual triathlon (500 yd swim, 17K bike, 5K run), in heats every 15 minutes starting at 7:00 AM. ...oh boy!

Wed 03 Jul 22:45 | John S. Rhodes | More fun and games with the WebWord community. Brought to you by Chris McEvoy. Boom! Monthly Overview When are comments made? Top 100 commented items of all time Top commenting members of all time Top 25 Monthly Domains New Members in July 2002 Recent Comments (weekly; mileage may vary)

Thu 04 Jul 01:12 | MadMan | Want me to manage the site while you're gone, John? I could dig up a plethora of links. :)

Thu 04 Jul 03:28 | Mac | How about using this item to post messages about the links that we come up with ? Oh, and I just realised that I've now replicated Johns info about the new stats in the other item , but I have added new info about Jack and his weird email addresses, so maybe thats Ok.

Thu 04 Jul 16:02 | MadMan | Alright, since John seems to have taken off before I posted my comment, I'll ask you nice folks out there. While John is away, would you like me to post useful (IMO) links to this comments page? I'll try and spark some interesting discussion. :)

Fri 05 Jul 14:26 | Anonymous | MadMan, post the interesting links on your own site.

Sat 06 Jul 21:33 | Jack Schonchin | I personally am disappointed that MadMan has relegated his chimpanzee photo to a back page. I appreciated the quick chimp access from each of his WebWord posts.

Sun 07 Jul 03:06 | Bob | This seems to be the free-for-all place for posting right now... Question: have any Amazon customers who had 'one-click ordering' disabled noticed it recently reactivated on their account? I disabled it when Amazon debuted the feature, however... Amazon e-mailed me tonight to confirm an order for books I was browsing. Apparently I one-click purchased them instead of placing them on my Wish List. Even though I re-logged into my account within 20 minutes of receiving the e-mail, Amazon will not allow me to cancel the order. Apparently they have people preparing to ship my order at 11:00 p.m. on a Saturday night, so it's too late to cancel. Uh huh. So now I get to reject the order with UPS and/or contest the charges on my credit card. I am no longer an Amazon customer. Goodbye.

Sun 07 Jul 10:18 | Jack Schonchin | I had a similarly frustrating experience with Barnes & Noble with a canceled order that was shipped anyway and customer service inquiries that went unanswered or provided incorrect information. I ate the cost. I then realized that I can order books from a local bookstore for usually about the same cost, because the bookstore doesn't charge me shipping. Plus, I support a local business.

Sun 07 Jul 14:51 | MadMan | Jack, I'm genuinely curious because I don't live in the US. Are books in your local bookstores also discounted 10-30% like Amazon? Amazon's internation shipping charges are unbelievably high. $8.99 per shipment and $3.99 per book. And that's just standard shipping. :(

Sun 07 Jul 16:43 | Jack Schonchin | At my local bookstores the books are usually sold at suggested retail price, or a little less, but that still works out OK. I'm a one-or-two-a-month type guy, so that would add up to a lot of online shipping charges. A local bookstore does not charge me shipping, so the Amazon/B&N discount I would get online is almost eliminated. And anyhow, sometimes bookstores do have specials, so I do get a discount. I search for titles online, but then buy local. I'll gladly pay 50 cents or a buck more per book to avoid the numerous hassles and pitfalls of online buying (credit card security, ordering snafus, clueless or nonexistent customer service, horrible return procedures, and having to be home to sign for the UPS delivery). At a bookstore I'm dealing with a real person who doesn't screw around or disregard me. More importantly, we have numerous USED BOOKSTORES. I can browse/preview books and buy at tremendous discounts. Some bookstores are tied into a (?) book network and can order used books that they don't have in stock at the store. In larger U.S. cities there are annual library book sales where tens of thousands of used books are sold for 50 cents or $1. I bought the complete Hitchhiker's Guide series (5 books) for a friend's son for $2.50. MadMan, I'm curious whether it would be cheaper for someone in the U.S. to buy books for you and ship them to you.

Não seja masoquista tecnológico. Reaja. | Wed 03 Jul

A vida como ela é - cheia de software que não funciona, sites enrolados, dificuldades de interação. Reclame, ache ruim, ligue para o SAC, mande um e-mail, fale com o ombudsman!

Wed 03 Jul 22:10 | John S. Rhodes | It is Portuguese. Here is BabelFish's translation... 'The life as it is - full of software that does not function, rolled sites, difficulties of interaction. It complains, it finds bad, it binds for the SAC, it orders an email, it speaks with the ombudsman!'

Thu 04 Jul 12:42 | Alexandre Kavinski | There´s no justice in the Babelfish translation. Here we go: Don´t be a technomasochist. React! 'Life as it is. Full of softwares that don´t work, complicated sites, difficulties of interaction. Complain, call it trash, call the costumer department, send an email, call the ombudsman' Also call someone who knows portuguese, the text is very good and interesting. Mandou bem Liv ;-)

Thu 04 Jul 12:53 | Rogerio | Gostei muito do artigo. Meus Parbéns.

Sat 06 Jul 15:19 | Lic | Very good article. Keep writing... you have a lot to say.

Sun 07 Jul 15:59 | Livia Labate | First of all, thank you for mentioning my article and thanks everyone for the comments. Here is a rough translation for those interested: Don’t be a techno-masochist. React. Originally published in Portuguese on June 24, 2002 at Webinsider under the title 'Não seja masoquista tecnológico. Reaja.' 'We are analog beings trapped in a digital world, and the worst part is, we did it to ourselves.' This sentence summarizes the thoughts of Don Norman in The Invisible Computer (MIT Press, 1997), which clarifies the fact that we are people and not machines, but we submit ourselves to the machine voluntarily. It appears to me as a rather stupid attitude to be aware of a problem and continually repeat it. But we develop new software, new Web sites, new equipment and new services without solving the problems of their previous versions and add even more confusing features to them. We tolerate and endure the difficulties of interaction in all these products – imposed by ourselves upon ourselves – and defend the new creations raising the flag of modernity and innovation. But if there is no improvement, why even bother to create a new version? Economical principles. This is the answer that justifies our ignorance pattern, which allows us to accept the worst and surrender to the barriers that human-computer interaction brings into our lives. We develop products that don’t adequate to the user but are financially viable. We create web sites that glorify 'design', even though the purpose is not artistic. We provide services that satisfy our management while the consumer is left alone disregarded and overlooked. This economy rules over a dissatisfied society, complacent to its self-imposed hindrances. But this won’t last. We are learning to identify these errors and vices, which we inherit from past generations raised NOT to participate in 'technology'. But let us not blame them; they did not live in the information age, where knowledge is the factor that adds real value to what is created. But we do, so what are we waiting for? Those economical principles will always be the same and it would be a frustrated effort to attempt to modify a market structure based on idealism alone. It is necessary to demand that what is produced be what we want, rather than what others expect to be adequate for us. Complain, protest, criticize, call customer service, create counter-advertising, send an email; talk to the ombudsman! Don’t put up with a product that is less than what you expect and less than you deserve. Notwithstanding the Internet’s relatively little age, this concept is hard to propagate. We start out by accepting all sorts of junk – slow hardware, sluggish connections, failed operating systems, browsers with bugs and sites that don’t facilitate the search for information. There is no energy left to try and enlighten the person responsible for a Web site about how she could have done something better for the user, after being repeatedly reminded of how dependent and insignificant you really have become before all that technology. As a user, it is difficult to contribute to the qualitative improvement of web sites by free and spontaneous willingness, but as a producer of this sort of product-service, complex and complete as web sites have become, it is more than an obligation. It is a social duty – with the risk of sounding Utopic – because it is the only way to change this retrograde and anti-evolutionary paradigm that we should accept things as they come. Enough of 'acceptable' Web sites! Disseminate the need for consistent projects, functional services, adequate technology to its target, competent professionals, well structured information architecture and, above all, results that fulfil the needs of this frustrated public starving for quality - as well as doing it to justify those economical principles that reign our masochist technological society.

Results from a survey of web prototyping tools usage | Tue 02 Jul

In June 2002 GUUUI conducted a survey on web prototyping tools usage. The purpose of the survey was to find out what tools are used for prototyping, what requirements interaction designers have for their tools, and how happy they are with the tools they are using. This article presents the results of this survey.

Thu 04 Jul 08:46 | (the other) JS | Anyone ever use SILK (sketching interfaces like krazy)? http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/denim/

Treating Viewers as Criminals | Wed 03 Jul

Once going to the bathroom or grabbing a snack on a commercial break gets treated as a form of theft, the media conglomerates are going to be hard pressed to get consumer compliance with their expectations, making it impossible to draw legitimate lines about what is and is not appropriate use of media content.

Thu 04 Jul 04:20 | Alan Fisher | Thank goodness for the BBC - no adverts, just programs. This does have a downside, though. For example, each episode of '24' lasts 45 minutes on UK television. I want to know what Jack Bauer is doing for the other 15 minutes, or should we rename the program '18' for the UK audience? Although 18 sounds like something which should be on Channel 5 late on Friday evening (joke for UK readers only).

Thu 04 Jul 04:39 | Mac | Turn commercial viewing into an educational experience! I like to mute the sound when ads are on, and then make up my own dialogue for it. Although you need more than one person present if you want to keep your sanity, it doesn't work with just pets in the room, but 'invisible' friends can work quite well. 'Isn't that right Erasmus?'

Thu 04 Jul 05:32 | Erasmus | Shut up, I'm trying to watch this...

Mobile annoyance factor reaches new heights | Wed 03 Jul

Of the 900 million messages that go through DoCoMos servers each day, 880 million (98%) are spam, according to the company. The problem is that, regardless of the source of the message, subscriber phones ring (or vibrate) every time mail arrives. Nearly everyone who owns an Internet-enabled cellular telephone has been inconvenienced as a result.

Wed 03 Jul 18:59 | John S. Rhodes | I think that it is interesting that people are very curious about what other people are writing. For example, you probably looked at this page because you saw that someone posted a comment. You might post your own comment in return. I've known for a long time that 'planting the first comment seed' is really important. That is what I am doing here. It is an attempt to stir up the bees so they buzz around. Aside: MadMan told me story about this in private that perhaps he will share with others here. The key idea is that in many cases, for many people, the comments about WebWord postings are more important than the news itself. Fortunately the comments are valuable while the noise is low. Let us hope it stays that way.

Wed 03 Jul 19:34 | (the other) JS | I had a related discussion recently. The concern this person had was that ideas like seeds create, as it was put to me, 'self fulfilling prophecy.' This struck me as odd as much of technology is layer upon layer of just that. ...For instance Daypop. I have also seen blog links to other sites, 'LINK, currently 36 visitors; LINK, currently 6 visitors....' I put this in the category of preemptive hinting, and not really bad or good. Is there a compulsion to click the high traffic spot? Perhaps so. But there may be a segment which clicks low traffic links. A road less traveled user type may develop.

Thu 04 Jul 04:30 | Mac | I have noticed that most commenting goes on in items that are about Webword itself. Is part of the reason that we know we can engage in conversation with the author of the item? Perhaps authors of items linked to could be 'invited' to reply to comments in webword. Maybe the first person to add a message could 'invite' the author to join in the discussion?

Design blooper: Door control panel | Wed 03 Jul

(System Concepts) When you enter the toilet, you cannot close the sliding door manually. Nor is there a bolt anywhere to be seen. Presumably, you have to use this control panel instead. How would you lock the door?

Wed 03 Jul 18:50 | Jack Schonchin | I, for one, look forward to seeing more toilet links on WebWord.

Thu 04 Jul 02:27 | Matt Round | I've encountered those toilets (but even more poorly labelled), I was sat down for several seconds before I realised I'd shut the door but not locked it, potentially rather awkward.

Thu 04 Jul 04:14 | Alan Fisher | Anglia Trains - I can't get away from them, even on Webword! They share the line with my commuter service into London, and whenever there's a broken down train delaying services, you can guarantee it's an Anglia train. I thought this was a safe haven, but no... The solution's obvious - wait until you get off.

Technology Is Movies' Angel, but Record Industry's Devil | Wed 03 Jul

We tend to ask how can we make more money and sell more product, not deal with consumer gripes.

Thu 04 Jul 04:10 | Alan Fisher | All of the people I know who regularly download or copy music also buy more CDs than the average consumer. The reason for this is simple - with CD prices so high (and they're worse in the UK than they are in the USA), many people want to listen before they buy, just in case the CD isn't as good as they thought. Over the last couple of years, I've been given quite a few CD copies. In every case, I've either gone out and bought a 'legal' copy (because I like it), or I've binned it (because I didn't like it). I have NEVER kept a copy to listen to in order to avoid buying, and I'm not alone in this attitude. Even those people who do keep copies to avoid buying CDs tend to go out and spend that money on other CDs. In other words, people are buying the same amount of music, but they're listening to more. As the article says, the music industry needs to stop seeing new technology as a threat, look at it from the consumer point of view and identify where their new revenue streams are going to come from. We have this debate with every new technology, all the way back to VHS and audio cassettes, and the entertainment industry still looks in fine shape to me.

Webword Statistics | Mon 01 Jul

Average comments per item, average comments per member, most popular postings, most active members, and more. These statistics represent a good fraction of the community activity on WebWord. Chris McEvoy built this excellent tool and wrote up how and why he created these statistics. This is awesome.

Mon 01 Jul 15:39 | Jack Schonchin | Aha! I stand vindicated! Except for April, MadMan was the uber-poster. Impressive stats, BTW.

Mon 01 Jul 15:51 | Mac | And here are some quick stats about when comments are made.

Mon 01 Jul 22:36 | Eric Scheid | 'The thing is this: After I have read something you have linked to or written, I like to read comments that have been added since I last looked at the site. I found myself trying to memorise the number of comments on each item, but that soon confused me.' John, tweak your template such that the links to the comments have a URL like mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=435&num=3 ... where num=3 is the number of comments. This way the URL actually changes every time there are new comments, and so the browser will no longer colour the link as 'visited'. This is a half-way step to better usability. Later, you can consider adding javascript code which will add a cookie which remembers what the count was last time, so that the page can then be scrolled to the new comments. That's more complicated but doable.

Tue 02 Jul 00:51 | MadMan | MadMan rules! Woohooo!

Wed 03 Jul 16:48 | JB | MadMan...that will be counted as a comment... and it shouldn't be...artificial inflating. Wait...this will be counted as a comment.... ohhh yeah!

Thu 04 Jul 03:01 | MadMan | An extra comment doesn't matter too much, JB. I'm apparently miles ahead of everyone else. ;) Now all I have to do is post more comments than John S Rhodes.

Thu 04 Jul 03:19 | Mac | 3 new webworders so far this month, I have now updated the webword stats pages: Added a line at the top giving total members, comments and items to date. See what times of day and days of week people comment. Top 100 most commented items of all time. Top commenting members of all time. (Yes MadMan youre there at no 2 after John ! This report also shows the range of dates that people have been posting. It also takes you to their oldest and most recent comments. Monthly Reports for domain names referenced in Webword items. This gives a feel for the wide range of sites John link to in his items. Monthly Reports showing new webworders. All comments posted in the last week (Monday to Sunday inclusive) This is basically what I produce for myself, with the difference that I can give it custom dates and times. I thought this might be a useful report for more 'occassional' members, or for people who go on holiday. It only shows new comments, but it will refer to older items if they have been commented on in the last week (does that make sense !). I have also tidied up the other reports, and added some words at the bottom of the main page soliciting comments and suggestions. If you have any suggestions about other Webword statistics you would like to see, or if you want to know more about the app that produces these statistics,or if you have any comments at all please contact me. If anyone would like the code (VB6 and Access database) to play with, or maybe convert it to server side code and mySQL so we could generate more timely reports then please get in touch. I will update the reports every Monday evening (or lunchtime for you US webworders) and see how it goes. Oh, and thanks to Jack for his (more than 50) amusing and self revealing comment she has inserted into his contact URL: schonchin@insert_comment_here.yahoo.com _a_sprinkle_a_day_keeps_the_odor_away_have_you_had_your_sprinkle_today? _I_am_so_full_of_myself_ _I_may_be_barefoot_but_I'm_not_pregnant_ _I_once_walked_in_Jakob's_footsteps_-_no_longer_-_for_I_have_seen_the_light _I_really_don't_want_to_go_to_work_today _returning_from_anonymous_land _the_angry_hoards_walked_in_disguise_I_nary_realized_they_followed_me_to_your_dwelling_forgive_me_oh_Lord_ bahhumbug blamblamblam bravo buyerbeware cleanbladdersareessential dyingtoknow ehhh enufisenuf eudorahastoomanyusabilityissues for_future_generations he's_a_tired_pundit hohumfriday hungry?grab_a_snickers invisiblesolidshowercleanlargersize ipushtheleverwithmyfoot,i'mnottouchingthatickything jackuberalles jackuberalles just_wondering keepingitreal keepingtrack my_mind_is_somewhere_else_right_now mybrainisinsleepmoderightnow myohmy mytwolincolns nope nospam nospamthankyou nursing_wounds ohyeah ok_I_will_stop_being_anonymous_for_a_while openyoureyes p.s phbbbbt! pleasesir,canihavesomemore? saycheese sigh skepticaleye smoochysmoochy sorrytodisappointmyfans thechainsthatbindus therevolutionbeginsnow thetruthrevealed thisrememberaddressthingmaymakemelazy unclearontheconcept vroom.vroom whistlewhileyouwork yohohoandabottleofrootbeer Now all these words will only count as one comment, maybe I should introduce a quality measure ! Cheers

WebWord Comment | Sun 30 Jun

A few people have recently told me that they would like me to categorize the information that I post on WebWord. I think it is a good idea. Movable Type makes this possible and I am willing to turn it on. However, rather than just make up a bunch of categories, Id like your help. What categories make sense to you. How would you categorize the information you see on WebWord? Post your suggestions. Im listening.

Mon 01 Jul 00:08 | Ari Bancale | Here's a simplistic suggestion. I was afraid of overdoing it so I put 2 levels. I'm assuming each posting could be placed under 1-3 categories. WEB - Design/Usability - Programming - Interface WORD - WebWord Comments - Reviews by other people - Books TECHNOLOGY - software/applications - hardware/consumer - tools/solutions - architecture - employment

Mon 01 Jul 00:10 | MadMan | Do you watch WWF wrestling? There's a character called The Rock who asks people questions like, 'what's your name?' and just as they begin to answer, he interrupts with a loud, 'it doesn't matter what your name is!' Similarly, let me say this: 'it doesn't matter what Christina uses!' ;) Is your content identical to her blog's? If not, then you need to do your own content inventory and see what categories are best suited for your blog. Go over the posts of the last two weeks or one month. Draw up a list of categories. Do on an online 'card sorting' exercise by asking your readers if it makes sense to them. What happens if you decide to post something that doesn't fit into one of the categories? Simple, just add it at the time. Straight off, I can tell you that 'Multiple' doesn't belong, since MT 2.0 apparently allows multiple categories for one post. Does 'usability' overlap with 'user-centred design'? Are 'research' and 'documentation' a part of 'programming' and 'usability' too? Questions, questions... (I'm happy to see you're taking all my suggestions, John :)

Mon 01 Jul 00:51 | Jack Schonchin | Let's make this easy. Group #1: Stuff that interests me Group #2: Junk Give me a check box next to each article so I can mark stuff I want to save for later retrieval. Consider it a substitute for a bookmark, because I only bookmark the really serious stuff that I'll want 6 months from now. Give me a WebWord shopping cart. Amazonify me!

Mon 01 Jul 01:04 | John S. Rhodes | MadMan, I used Christina's categories as a starting point. Seemed reasonable to me. Also, I did review the material that I posted for the last several weeks. That is how I decided to delete categories and add others. Fair enough? And by the way, thanks for the idea of categorizing in the first place! Jack, Junk? What junk? No junk here. :-) I would do a lot more with WebWord if I had unlimited resources. It is getting time for a re-design of WebWord. That really strikes fear in me, but the old design is getting stale and does not capitalize on some JavaScript goodies and CSS.

Mon 01 Jul 06:03 | Ben Hunt | JS, I would like you to keep the WebWord summaries unclassified. The reason is, I scan WebWord for things that add interest to my day and may expand my range of experience. I often find things that interest me that may belong in categories that I might not bother to browse. Keeping the form free makes me read and makes me think. Can the user have the choice? -Ben

Mon 01 Jul 06:38 | jonathan | Don't make me think. ;-) I like the idea of some simple categories so it's easier to find items of interest when I return to webword.com. Too many classifications hinders that ability, in my opinion. Macintouch.com used to be the same style as WebWord until Ric Ford added in some simply categories grouping his daily content. The 'redesign' made a huge difference in my ability to simply scan and find the nuggets I'm looking for. jonathan

Mon 01 Jul 10:15 | Jack Schonchin | John, ya I know. A 'shopping cart' just seems like something blogs - or perhaps all web sites - should have. It would be an alternative to bookmarks. When you revisit a web site, you should have the ability to pull up pages you've designated as important. I use Amazon's shopping cart and 'save for later list' that way. Regarding classifications... I say, continue to display the front page links UNcatergorized, but archive the links into categories. Can that be done? Categories primarily assist people who want to look through old content.

Mon 01 Jul 10:19 | John S. Rhodes | Jack, Not sure how the whole categories thing even works in Movable Type. I've got my hopes up that it'll be easy and painless. I'll definitely keep your feedback in mind.

Mon 01 Jul 13:17 | MadMan | John, setting up categories in MT is relatively easy, but make sure you enable the category archives first. Do you know any programming language? I *think* you know some Perl, right? I ask because I had some ideas. As for classification, I think not enough is written about death by over-classification. I'd rather have some overlap between categories than have categories that have only 2 or 3 links in them. I think you should keep it simple - 5 to 10 categories at most. That should be broad enough to cover everything, and yet help keep things organised. I'll post some suggestions soon.

Tue 02 Jul 02:20 | Matt Round | I agree with Jack about the categories, don't let them affect the home page (apart from possibly showing the categories each item is in, and making them links to the archive), they're primarily useful when browsing archives. I don't think WebWord needs anything too radical in terms of redesign, just some careful tweaking to improve the look a bit and use CSS & JavaScript sensibly.

Tue 02 Jul 06:29 | John S. Rhodes | I wasn't planning on changing the design of the WebWord home page based on categories. I might add something to the left-hand navigation, but the body area will remain unchanged, I think. We'll see.

Wed 03 Jul 07:48 | MadMan | Here, I've come up with a short list of categories that should cover all your needs without being too narrow: Accesiblity Branding, Marketing, and Business strategy Information Architecture Interface design Programming Usability Design Writing Reviews Random stuff Technology Webword comments

Wed 03 Jul 19:09 | John S. Rhodes | MadMan, I like your list and it was very close to the final one I was working on...so I combined them. Accessibility Business Issues Design Ergonomics Information Architecture Interface design Programming Random Stuff Reviews Technology Usability Webword comments Writing End of story. Thanks for all the feedback everyone!!

WebWord Comment | Sun 30 Jun

When you search WebWord now, you will be using Google. I was using the free Master.com (Thunderstone) search engine but it wasnt producing useful results. Lets see how this works for us.

Mon 01 Jul 01:03 | Jack Schonchin | I never look at the link descriptions, but it seems like Google *should* give the user the choice of seeing the meta tag, or first 200 characters or the keyword reference.

Tue 02 Jul 13:32 | Dennis Deacon | Another item just discovered... If you use Google for site-specific searches, the search key word/phrase criteria, along with site-specific criteria appear in the search box on the results page. While it's a usability benefit to display the previously searched criteria, I think it's a usuability issue to force the site-specific criteria in the search box. For instance, if I perform a site-specific search on www.sunstonetours.com for the term 'cruise alaska,' The following criteria appears in the search box on the search results page... cruise alaska site:www.sunstonetours.com If the results don't provide me with what I'm looking for, I may perform another search using different criteria. If I delete the previous search criteria and replace it with new criteria (without the site:www...), it displays results from the entire Internet, not just from the desired site. Thoughts? Comments?

Writing “Basic” with a Global Reach | Thu 27 Jun

About those flags, animated and otherwise … ditch ‘em. If you offer your site in multiple translations, use the correct name of the language instead of the country’s flag for identification. Which flag would you use for English (you can choose from USA, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Singapore)? And which of four languages would you be indicating by using the Swiss flag?

Tue 02 Jul 11:04 | oldie | Personally I thin flags a very user friendly way to switch versions of a site. Ignoring the political implications of which flag to choose, I find them eye-catching.

An open letter to Macromedia | Sun 30 Jun

(Subterrane) Today, you really got in my face and gave me the what-for. I cant stay silent any longer. I must speak up. I went to a website that was built with flash. You claim that this is a good thing because it has rich media, (insert corporate buzzwords) and everyone can view it. Well, no, they cant.

Mon 01 Jul 00:46 | Anonymous | I've never believe the statistics Macromedia provides regarding Flash penetration. More prolific than Java? Uh huh.

Mon 01 Jul 13:48 | CHris | I believe that Flash is more prolific than java (and certainly more stable) but there are still issues that Macromedia needs to be promoting to its developers. Even the most usable Flash site with an intuitive interface will still need an HTML version. Flash develoeprs seem to have a fear of HTML when it comes to developign Flash sites.

Mon 01 Jul 17:46 | Anonymous | How is Flash more prolific than Java when Java was shipped preinstalled in browsers long before Flash? Plus, Java is available on virtually every platform.

WebWord Comment | Sun 30 Jun

Please do me a favor. Click in the Search box and the Submit News boxes (Enter URL . . . and Who to Credit?) in the left hand navigation of this page. I added some JavaScript to them to make them a little bit easier to use. Let me know if they blow up or cause you any pain. Thanks for the help.

Mon 01 Jul 00:04 | MadMan | Of course, we all know that it should be 'Whom to credit', not 'who'. :p A funny thing happens when you click the 'credit' input box when nothing has been entered into the URL box. And then try clicking in the URL box. I won't ruin your surprise. ;)

Mon 01 Jul 00:55 | John S. Rhodes | MadMan, I know about the Flip Flop. It doesn't seem 'bad' to me.

Mon 01 Jul 13:37 | Lydia | I didn't notice a flip-flop when clicking the 'credit' box, then clicking the 'url' box. All I noticed was that when I clicked into the 'url' box, that emptied out and the 'credit' box displayed its 'who to credit?' message again. That is what is supposed to happen, right? Everything seemed to work just fine to me.

Japan and the United States worlds apart on wireless | Sun 30 Jun

The Japanese numbers, however large, dont quite capture the relationship the Japanese have with a cellphone. To them, the wireless phone is as intensely personal as a watch or a purse. Its an extension of the body, often with designer leather straps, World Cup flags, rhinestones or little animal figures dangling off the end. The screen is customized with a screensaver, the ring tone with a song of the users choice. The U.S. cellphone, by contrast, remains a drab, albeit functional, appliance, less a watch than a toaster.

Mon 01 Jul 13:33 | Anita Rowland | Note Justin's page from SXSW on japanese phone culture. The phone accessories are amazing!

Functional Specification Tutorial | Sun 30 Jun

(mojofat) Functional specifications (functional specs), in the end, are the blueprint for how you want a particular web project or application to look and work. It details what the finished product will do, how a user will interact with it, and what it will look like. By creating a blueprint of the product first, time and productivity are saved during the development stage because the programmers can program instead of also working out the logic of the user-experience.

Mon 01 Jul 04:52 | Mac | A Programmers View Of Specs 'The developer working from the spec has, ideally, all of their questions answered about the application and can start building it. And since this is a spec that was approved by the client, they are building nothing less than what the client is expecting. There should be nothing left to guess or interpret when the spec is completed...' (from the article) Hallelujah, now all you have to do is buy one of those new-fangled 4GL systems that writes code from specs and you can get rid of us programmers completely. If you can also put some 'paint by numbers' diagrams into the spec, I'm sure you could get a trained monkey to colour it in for you, and do away with the 'graphic designers' too. Now if only it could deal with those darned users as well. I also love specs, because they give me a change to have a conversation with the designers, managers, etc. in a language we can all understand (hopefully). But in my experience specs are often used as a sledgehammer to beat team members into submission. I have quite often received specs via e-mail asking me to approve them in 24 hours (with a chance to comment, of course.) An over reliance on written specs and sign-offs can result in an project where the 'spec consumers' feel alienated and disempowered. Power Crazed Managers love specs that have to be followed to the letter, because it gives them a way of controlling the team without having to understand what they do, because they can always quote verbatim from the spec to shut you up. If people are left out of the design and decision makeing process, then they will use the only power they have left (obstruction, sabotage, and bad-mouthing) to exercise some control over what they are working on. After she exhibited a new feature, called a slide show, to be activated by clicking on illustrations in pop-ups, I asked Gamill why he had not objected to it, as it was nearly impossible to code. 'Its' just her,' he said, mindful of the rebuke delivered to him by Bartholomew at his last employee review. 'If it was anyone else, I'd say, 'There's no way I can do it.' Now I'll just wait till the next priorities meeting, then say, 'It'll take two man-months to implement this,' and that will be that.' He laughed. I Sing The Body Electronic Fred Moody Oh and don't tell me that someone will go back to their mamangement after some usability sessions that show the 'signed-off' spec needs to go back to the drawing board, will tell their managers that the spec 'they' signed-off will have to be scrapped, but they will get a new one to them for sign-off in a week or so....

Mon 01 Jul 13:31 | Lydia | Obviously, functional specs aren't for everyone. Frankly, reading the tutorial gave me the willies from a design standpoint (it seems to suck the joy out of development), but I really enjoyed how well laid out the tutorial was, and I was able to extract information that I find extremely useful. Parts of it summed up what I've been thinking but never put down on paper. Overall, it's a very good tutorial, and certainly for people who like functional specs, I'm sure it will become an instant 'rule book.'

What your computer says about you | Sun 30 Jun

(BBC) Your computer provides more than just physical clues to your personality. Ben Williams, psychologist Analysing the computer screen, the images you use or simply the way you organise your icons can reveal much about your inner desires and ambitions.

Mon 01 Jul 09:19 | Kirk | 'It could be that the person with not much on their desktop is naive about technology,' said Mr Williams. 'The person with a lot of whizz bang stuff is very technology aware. They know how to download these things, install them and store them.' What a load of BS. Maybe a timid newbie has an ucluttered desktop, but then there's a huge 'middle of the road' where the user has figured out how to download things, and when the program installs a start icon on the desktop, they just leave it there. Advanced users (as far as I can see) tend to weed out all the unused icons. (And if they're like me, tend to use the desktop as temporary storage for tons of files). A more meaningful thing to look at, under Windows, have they put frequently used icons in an accesible place, like the desktop, start menu, or little launch bar?

Mon 01 Jul 12:40 | tom | What you link to can say a lot about you too :-)

Submit Gracefully | Sun 30 Jun

(forUse) On all too many sites the button just reads “Submit” when to the user it really should say “Order Now” or “Bid” or “Buy Tickets.” The button should say what it means to the user. In addition, a pop-up screen tip should give the hesitant user an informative and re-assuring explanation.

Mon 01 Jul 09:13 | Kirk | And too many sites have a 'Reset' button, even on small little forms. Actually, even on big forms its a bad idea...maybe even worse. The only time it is relevant is when you're doing an 'edit' to existing data...but for create data it just makes no sense. (And a 'lose changes' button that looks so similar to a 'save changes' button is a bad idea anyway)

Mon 01 Jul 09:24 | MadMan | The 'Reset' button should be forever banished

Mon 01 Jul 09:52 | John S. Rhodes | Reset and Cancel Buttons (useit.com)