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last updated:21 May 2003 09: 26 Webword time, or 21 May 2003 14:26 UK time
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(Comments added for week ending Sun 18 May 2003) | View Other Weeks
Mental Models, Metaphor and Design | Sun 18 May
(UK Usability Professionals Association) In his talk William Hudson briefly introduces the theory of mental models and metaphor then goes on to look in detail at their practical application in designing and improving interactive systems. Examples are drawn from e-commerce (the shopping basket metaphor), desktop applications and e-banking. (Comments: Tuesday May 20th 18:30 – 20:30)
Sun 18 May 22:46 | Ron Zeno | Can you make it clearer when a post is just a promotional piece?
Sun 18 May 22:51 | John S. Rhodes | Ron, it is a promo piece, yes. But, it is going to be free for UPA members and only 10 pounds for non-members. That doesn't seem out of hand. (In general, I don't post promotional pieces.) The UPA did not pay me to post this. If they did, it would be a nice little source of income. I only *wish* more folks asked me to post stuff for money. Of course, I'd be very open about it...
Why Try to Out-Google Google? | Sun 18 May
When I think about this (and I find myself thinking about this a lot) it strikes me that the things that made Google successful initially were not technical. Yes, Google has great search technology, great algorithms, and so forth. But the average searcher does not care about these. The average searcher is going to be attracted by a friendly interface and an easy-to-use site.
Sun 18 May 12:45 | Frank Lynch | I disagree. In marketing terms, Calishain has apparently confused 'end benefits' with attributes. She is right to say that users don't care about technology and algorithms per se, but wrong to assume that what they lead to — higher quality search results — is irrelevant. Higher quality search results, the end benefit, is extremely important. Quality is a function of relevance, but also how quickly the results are delivered. When Google came out, its advantage in both areas was clear. This is not to say the clean interafce doesn't matter, but only to say that the attributes matter more than she says, because they deliver a key end-benefit.
Sun 18 May 14:36 | James | I have to agree with Frank, in the end the RESULTS made google a success. Ease of use was a major issue, but then again, easy to use crap is still crap.
Sun 18 May 21:57 | Anonymous | Nope. The average person uses MSN or Netscape's homepage until someone changes it for them. If the search engine doesn't pull up relevent results, they blame the Internet or themselves, not the search engine. Google drew nerds' attention because of the interface, who then popularized Google. It's a side benefit that the search results are better than average.
Sun 18 May 22:40 | Frank Lynch | Tell us more about this 'average person.' According to an article in the New York Times, Google accounts for 55% of all web searches. Do the math: for non-google users to be 'average' searchers, they must be searching less.
GPS implant makes debut | Sat 17 May
Once inserted into a human, the device can be tracked by Global Positioning Satellite technology and the information relayed wirelessly to the Internet, where an individuals location, movements and vital signs can be stored in a database for future reference. (Comments: The implant could easily feed The Ghost.)
Sun 18 May 15:51 | Philip Chalmers | If true, this raises the political and civil liberties stakes enormously. Dangers - easy to identify. Benefits (a few of possibly thousands): * saving victims of heart attacks, strokes, accidents, assualts etc. which happen while they are alone. * making it possible to realise into 'normal' life people with psychoses which are controllable provided the patients stick to the medication schedule. * getting minor offenders out of prisons - beats electronic tagging hollow. * ensuring that violent spouses stay away from their victims. * easily verifiable / refutable alibis. The really big achievement would be to prevent the benefits from becoming the thin end of the totalitarian wedge.
Putting Microsoft brand on a new breed: Longhorn | Sat 17 May
Googles a very nice system, but compared to my vision, its pathetic. (Comments: Thats a quote from Jim Allchin, Vice Presdient of Microsofts Platforms Group. It makes him sound like an arrogant asshole. I dont know if he actually is an asshole, but that quote makes him sound that way, dont you think? I wonder if he cares at all about reputation management?)
Sun 18 May 07:34 | daniel szuc | Like that MS are thinking about their users. Shame it has to be communicated this way.
Sun 18 May 14:33 | Ron Zeno | Interesting bit of propaganda. Lots of focus on creating excitement. Of course, Microsoft's visions, superior or otherwise, rarely make it into the final product, and by then the world has changed. It's far easier to create a vision of something better than Google, than to produce a product that will actually be better than what Google has become by that time.
Usability Tip: Setting Expectations | Mon 12 May
(Signal vs. Noise) One of the things I don’t hear enough about from many usability professionals/pundits is the importance of specific interface elements setting expectations.
Wed 14 May 12:39 | Ralph | Very true. One of my favorite Windows conventions is the ellipsis after a command that tells you a dialog box will come up. Print... is a prime example where I hate to waste paper (or maybe it's that I hate to be clueless as to what will happen), so I never want to trust a Print command without one. That's a good point that Amazon is pretty good at leading the way on the web. I'm reminded of a heading from Steven Krug's book 'If you love Amazon so much, why don't you marry it?'
Sun 18 May 07:42 | daniel szuc | Understanding user expectations about what they think lies behind a piece of functionality can sometimes reveal the best parts of the application the product developers may never have thought of. Or how a term may be completely misleading in the first place.
CHI:2003 Benchmark Yourself Against the Experts | Tue 13 May
(usabilitynews) If this model is successful, it could be an effective means to evaluate, teach, and share ideas among usability professionals.
Sun 18 May 07:39 | daniel szuc | Think you have to keep repeating the concept of Usability and be consistent in your communications with the business you are consulting to. Reason being, people may never have heard of usability or have think its just 'common sense'. So the challenge is you may have people in the business who think there is a need for it but you have to make sure they understand it correctly. Also think its important to show how usability has actually shown improvements in the product as you iterate towards market implementation and some of the measures of the success. I still maintain *some* usability is better than none at all.
Extinction nears for whales and dolphins | Thu 15 May
and Scientists: Only 10 Percent of Big Ocean Fish Left. This kind of stuff really worries me.
Sat 17 May 01:42 | Anonymous | Is that the wind or do I hear someone saying the sky is falling? Who was counting large ocean fish 50 years ago? Think about it.
Security doesn't create trust | Thu 15 May
But dont try to tell me that security technology creates trust. It cant. At best its neutral, and upon reflection, most times it increases mistrust and fear. From now on, whenever a security technology guru tells me that computer security creates trust Im going to demand evidence. I suggest you do so as well.
Thu 15 May 22:41 | Anonymous | Good footnote: '...technologies that make it easy to see what people and companies are up to (in a sense the opposite of firewalls) ...' Pretty much applies to most technology - do the exact opposite of the conventional 'if you had been in this industry as long as I have' nonsense.
WebWord Comment | Thu 15 May
Type Ahead. It is surprising how many users complain about the lack of type ahead.
Thu 15 May 22:34 | Anonymous | Very nice for file names and such, as long as the list scrolls as typing progresses. It would be interesting to know if, once users *get* type ahead they really do want it.
$20 bill gets a facelift | Tue 13 May
The Treasury Departments Bureau of Engraving and Printing introduced the new design, still featuring Andrew Jackson on the front but without the old circle, and a background with subtle green, peach and light blue hues. (Comments: (1) Dont change money. Please. (2) What usability problems have been introduced with this change? (3) Cash and the Carry Tax (4) Wheres George?)
Tue 13 May 22:35 | Anonymous | The last time they changed the bills I kept mixing up the $10 and $20 bills. They did a crap ass lousy job of making the bills easily distinguishable at a glance.
Wed 14 May 12:34 | MICK | I don't know, I think those large numbers in each of the corners help out a lot when determining value.
Thu 15 May 05:51 | Stephen | You shouldn't just have to rely on numbers printed on the notes though. In the UK each note is a different size and with a different colour scheme, which makes it very easy to quickly find the one you want in your wallet without having to view much of the note. When I visit the States, even allowing for the unfamiliarity, I take far, far longer to locate the correct note and it makes one more vulnerable to muggers the longer you spend having to do this.
Is There Any Reason To Buy Microsoft Anymore? | Sun 11 May
Almost everything enterprises once found unique to Microsoft they can now find somewhere else without some of the baggage that comes with Microsoft purchases, like ongoing security concerns and mystifying licensing practices.
Tue 13 May 21:33 | mcw | Deal with average users in the real world, not techies. You will find that they don't want to change from their MS Office apps. Period. They don't care about 'software monoculture', whether MS is or is not a monopolist, or any of the rest of the stuff that keeps the chattering class occupied. They have learned to get their work done with those tools and they don't see a reason to change. You want people to switch, create a better product. Give people a reason to change, other than political correctness. It's not price, most of these folks don't see the cost and aren't willing to change for a few bucks each per year. Remember, you want them to be happy at their work. Almost as good won't do it (Open Office). You usability folks pride yourselves on objective testing to prove points. Go do some testing on Open Office and MS Office. Find out what people prefer. I bet the answer is that people like the MS product. At best Open Office is comparable to MS Office of two or three generations back. What a great incentive to switch! I've tried Star Office and Open Office over the last two years, and when I have work to do I go back to MS Office to get it done.
Wed 14 May 18:30 | Andy | As painful as it sounds..Microsoft is going from strength to strength as is & will be evident from the new products that Gates & co. are slated to introduce in the forthcoming quarter(insider news from a close friend at Microsoft).Don't get me wrong I am no MS fan but as they say : 'Love us OR hate us..but u can't ignore us..'..very apt and though I've seen scores of my colleagues/friends switch over to other products..they still have a MS product tucked in somewhere and invariably..they HAVE TO go back..some time or the other...:) So, my reasoning is YES ! we still have to..not that we can't help it...;-)
Thu 15 May 02:27 | Anonymous | I just updated my resume. Just for kicks, I used the event to try out OpenOffice Write and AbiWord (both on top of WinXP). Note that I don't mind learning curves. I've used one or more versions of WordStar, WordPerfect (on DOS), MS-Word (on DOS), Word for Mac, Word for Windows, Ventura Publisher, Volkswriter, InDesign, FrameMaker, MS Publisher, PageMaker, Apple Works, and probably a few others. My favorite overall wordprocessor, to date, has been Word for Windows 6.0. (The Word product has pretty much been all downhill since then.) Unfortunately, both OO Write and AbiWord aspire to be nothing more than bad Word knockoffs. That's too bad, because Word's usability stinks. I ask you: Would it be so hard to come up with an alternative to deeply nested dialog boxes for style management? I figure Word's dominance is secure for the time being.
Manifesto: para quê este site? | Thu 08 May
Quantas vezes se enganou com o sentido de abertura das portas da sua empresa? pragueja, e murmura #%$@$%, nunca hei-de conseguir memorizar isto? Mesmo correndo o risco de parecer um daqueles livros de self-help, posso aliviá-lo: a culpa não é sua, mas geralmente de um design defeituoso.
Wed 14 May 19:27 | chicana | How abt makin' a separate section for *other* languages ?
From Thinkers to Clickers | Wed 14 May
(Ubiquity) Clicking is fast becoming a substitute for thinking. Clicking requires less effort than thinking and is in some instances less painful than thinking.
Wed 14 May 12:19 | Ralph | Excellent article! It brings to mind a picture of the future with us humans as chickens in cages, reduced to clicking instead of clucking as our only activity. But, I disagree with the premise. I love clicking AND thinking together. I picture the www as Vannevar Bush's thinking machine, or terms of popular culture, as Cliff Claven's delight. The www makes an excellent long term memory. Just Google it, and wham!, there you go! Or if that fails, ask another human on a forum. And the Flow experience can be wonderful. But flow is best when the web experience goes as Steven Krug's book says, 'Don't Make Me Think!'. If you don't have to think about the little stuff, you can think about the big picture. But, RL can be pretty rewarding also.
Wed 14 May 17:48 | Anonymous | Phaedrus and Socrates did a better job of it: 'for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.' Personally I haven't seen many more people think about 'big' things. Most flamage happens because of quite the opposite of most of what people argue the internet is good for, picayune issues jabbered about with zealous abandon. (Wasn't a chunk of the 90s about, as the saying goes, skydiving without a parachute, and hoping to make on before hitting bottom?' Sounds like missing the big picture to me.
Using photos to increase trust in a website | Wed 14 May
(webusability.com) In this study the participants reactions ranged from suspicion to enthusiasm.
Wed 14 May 11:29 | Mac | Try scrolling to the bottom of the page and then refresh the page. I had to manually produce the quote from the report as it's not possible to copy text from the page. I shudder to think what a screen-reader would make of this page.
Wed 14 May 14:10 | Ron Zeno | It's...it's...99% bad! ;) Has someone sent him an email?
Wed 14 May 16:29 | Mac | I have sent an e-mail to Dr. Bob asking if he would like to comment on the usability of his flash newsletter. I have also added all of his newsletters to usabilityviews.com
Wed 14 May 17:19 | fajalar | So, now that Bob's Web site is gaining in the public's knowledge, is he getting a fan club? Perhaps the Flash is just being anit-Yaykob?
Wed 14 May 17:26 | fajalar | d'oh... anti-Yaykob.
Design Management Journal -- Free! | Mon 12 May
(peterme) Now, you could fork over $5 an article, or get a subscription, to read the goodies within. But I believe Ive found a backdoor that allows free access to the content (not in published form, but in raw text). (Comments: Should people publish back doors to paid content? Information wants to be free? Legal issues and liability? Speak up!)
Mon 12 May 23:32 | MadMan | There is nothing wrong with telling people about security holes in systems. It is your responsibility as a site owner to make sure there aren't any. A similar issue came up once before on Webword and I remarked that if it's on a public site, and people don't have to 'hack' into your system to access it, there's no criminal liability. For instance, say Webword's MovableType was stored in the file www.webword.com/password.txt and that I could access it just by typing that URL in, I'm not doing anything wrong. I didn't make any special attempt to break into your site, did I? However, if I changed the look of your home page using your password, there might be a case for legal action.
Tue 13 May 01:08 | Anonymous | I like MadMan's view of the world. The next time the ATM machine begins spitting out twenty dollar bills by mistake, I'll go tell everyone I know. As long as I don't take any money for myself, I'm OK. Yeah, gotta love new age ethics. It's your own damn fault I'm exploiting you, you dummy!
Tue 13 May 02:34 | Matt Round | Publishing a back door is dodgy, but sometimes the only way to get security holes fixed is to publicise them. Several times I've pointed out an obvious hole to a site owner only for them to do absolutely nothing about it or blame me for spotting the problem (which is why I don't bother any more); if I named'n'shamed loudly enough I'm sure they'd get fixes done. Similarly, Microsoft tends to neglect many holes until people start openly spreading the information and exploiting them. (if you know a bit about web applications it's shocking how many fairly large sites are wide open to abuse, most developers still haven't grasped the basics of input validation)
Tue 13 May 07:20 | Mac | The jokes on us, if we believe that anyone actually pays to read this stuff. If the 'Design Management Institute' aren't able to build a site that actually works then maybe they should read their own article on 'Writing the perfect design brief!'
Tue 13 May 08:52 | tom smith | If someone leaves their back door open, is it OK to rob them? Is it OK to have a look around and leave empty handed? I'm surprised that Peter published this back-door, firstly because the content wasn't very interesting (I scan read a couple) and secondly reading them felt wrong (Is this a paid for journal?)
Tue 13 May 09:13 | Joshua Kaufman | I'm with Tom on all points. If someone puts a price on something, interesting or not, it's not free. Using it - or in this case viewing it - without payment is stealing. If someone found a backdoor into the 37signals search report, would we feel the same way about viewing it? What makes it okay to steal in this situation? When do you decide that it's okay to lie, cheat and steal?
Tue 13 May 09:36 | Anonymous | Nononononno, it's just like MP3s. It's OK for me to keep a library of 10,000 copyrighted MP3 songs because in the real world I'd never pay for so many. So it's not stealing. If it was wrong, there would be protections in place to stop me. Your door is wide open. Oh wait, this web site had a security system, and you're telling me how to bypass it. Gee, uh, ummm. No brainer. Entirely unethical. It saddens me to see today's moral compass pointing south.
Tue 13 May 09:50 | Ron Zeno | It doesn't look like a back door, but rather someone's subscription (I didn't click on the link to investigate further). Nice going Peter! - NOT!
Tue 13 May 15:28 | MadMan | John asked about the legal issues. I didn't think there was anything legally wrong with it. I didn't know it was a backdoor to someone else's subscription. In that case, I'm with Ron that it's not particularly responsible. Let me ask you: what if there were a hole in Microsoft's software or web site (often the case) and you thought people's data could be compromised? What if Microsoft had done nothing despite repeated notifications? Do you still think it's wrong to publicise it? The responsibility of securing something is the company's. If the ATM machine spits out, er, twenty dollar notes (I'm not American; why is that wrong?), the bank is at fault for not testing properly. At the very least, it does nothing to inspire confidence in such an organisation. If they can't secure their authentication systems, how safe is my credit card number or personal information? If you leave your front door wide open when you're gone and word gets around the neighbourhood, don't blame the neighbours. Should sites like SecurityFocus and others like it be shut down? I didn't read a single article from that link, incidentally.
Wed 14 May 08:31 | Brian | 'Publicizing it' obviously NOT the only way to call attention to a security hole. The ethical response is to send an e-mail directly to the site owner for their attention, not advertise the vulnerability to all and sundry and then sit back to watch the fireworks. As for your ethical duty if you've tried to notify them (repeatedly) and gotten no response... your best choice at that point is to contact a business-watch organization (such as the Better Business Bureau, perhaps) and ask them to investigate. In the meantime, you can certainly publish announcements that Company X has a security leak and that people may not want to store their customer info there. But describing exactly what the leak is and how to exploit is is NEVER ethical. Yes, the company is responsible for fixing the hole; you've done your duty by notifying them of it and warning the public so they don't lose or endanger their own info/money/whatever. But publishing instructions on how to take advantage of the weakness is morally the same as passing along safecracking instructions for bank vaults. It crosses the line between _warning_ about a vulnerability and _exploiting_ it.
Wed 14 May 11:50 | Ron Zeno | Why are people assuming that this is really a backdoor? While I'm no expert, and I'm not going to investigate beyond what Peter has written, it looks to me like nothing more than the use of someone's account. Yes, it's a security problem. Should it be published in a weblog? Absolutely not. The fact that Peter did post it says tons (all very bad) about him, his company, and the organizations he leads.
Wed 14 May 15:24 | Brian | From Peter's own comments (now that the leak has been plugged): 'I'm still not sure how I feel about this... I don't think I should be held responsible for someone else's thoughtlessness. It's as if a box of Design Management Journals had been left, open, with no one around.' And if a coworker left money lying on their desk in plain sight, would that make it OK to steal it? Sorry, Peter; that fails the ethics test. It's not 'holding you responsible for someone else's thoughtlessness.' It's expecting a modicum of ethical behavior if you want anyone's respect. Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD. Principles, after all, are what drive your behavior when nobody's looking.
Wed 14 May 16:04 | Joshua Kaufman | Recently posted to peterme: Ceasing and Desisting. 'Peterme.com received it's first-ever cease-and-desist letter today. The folks at Proquest were none too happy that I pointed out a backdoor to their database.'
WebWord Reader Comment | Tue 13 May
(posted by MCW) You usability folks pride yourselves on objective testing to prove points. Go do some testing on Open Office and MS Office. Find out what people prefer. I bet the answer is that people like the MS product. (Comments: I think MCW makes several good points. What do you think?)
Tue 13 May 23:49 | Anonymous | The workplace is indeed MS territory. The problem, as MCW points out: 'You want people to switch, create a better product. Give people a reason to change, other than political correctness.' This is similar to auto makers, seeing a Japanese import of four years ago -- then being competitive by putting out a four-year-old copy of a Japanese design. These products have to be original -- and original in ways current users want, but can't describe if you simply sit them down and ask them. One flaw in MCW's comment -- he's talking to usability (folks) about this. It simply isn't about usability, but desirability. Usability does a game job at trying to understand desirability but isn't really about that sort of thing. There may be an interaction designer with vision to come up with the next gen interface or office suite -- but he's sure to get pounded on for departing from usability dogma and many users will be just as skeptical, until they use the stuff. Face it folks, we don't need a new word processor. We need a rethinking of what people do with the word processor and what they could be doing. Trouble is, many people in the software movement are so invested in being against Microsoft, they can't see actual users, or what could be. Being against Microsoft is not a strategy, nor is copying Microsoft's strategy for 1995.
Wed 14 May 02:14 | daniel szuc | I used Open Office for a time, but found it to be too buggy and not totally compatible with other people using MS Office to walk away with a completey satisfied user experience. However, it does not change my willingness to try open source software.
Wed 14 May 08:18 | Brian | MCW DOES make several good points. Especially around here, we should be aware that usability and suitability for people's needs really does matter more than some nebulous 'popularity among techies' or 'IT political acceptability.' Microsoft doesn't even necessarily make the best apps--but they're the standard, and people want to use whatever is standard (i.e., most straightforward and least complicated to work with). As the IT economy continues to chug along, more and more of the user population will be made up of people who flat-out don't care about monopolistic practice, creativity, or even technology itself. All they want is to work with a standard, straightforward, easy-to-use tool and accomplish something, rather than tinker with nonstandard tweaks and patches. They want something that already works and either requires no support or has standard support available anywhere. For now, that means MS. And no degree of sputtering and fuming about 'Microsoft is Evil' is going to impress them... if they're even aware of it. Remember, AOL doesn't offer the most features, the most power, or the best tools for anything related to Internet activities... but it's still the most popular, because it's easy for non-techies to use with a minimum of effort. Usability predicts this. It's just that some few holdouts in the techie community still don't want to accept it.
Wed 14 May 12:30 | Ralph | Going back to a Microsoft product of a few years ago may be a good thing, since it reverses feature bloat. Back in the dark days of the 80s, I loved Professional Write. It was a bare bones, fairly easy to use word processor. Even going to Wordperfect I was flooded with mystifying features that I had no interest in using or learning. So MS, in an effort to hide some of this complexity from the users, gave us collapsing menus that just baffle me as to what algorithm they use and get me horribly lost. But in Microsoft's defense, I can at least always count on MS software to follow Windows standards. Non-MS Commercial software just drives me crazy with lack of feedback (no hourglass when busy), lack of cut and paste functionality, etc. I think Microsoft will eventually get it. They do at least have Scott Berkun who I think is great.
Wed 14 May 13:33 | Jeff Albro | Calybos said 'people want to use whatever is standard (i.e., most straightforward and least complicated to work with).' and she/he was absolutely right. People will gladly switch to a non-MS product when the annoyances from using it are less than Microsoft annoyances: money, registration, anti-piracy, format lock-in, and other stupid features. For instance, I tell people Mozilla can stop pop-up ads, and THEN they are willing to try it instead of IE. Unfortunately Open Office isn't even in the ball park yet. Soon, I hope to start taking part in Open Office testing and see if the developers are interested in fixing usability bugs. -Jeff
Picture this | Tue 13 May
(Guardian.co.uk) My collection of photos consists of a several snaps of my baby, a couple of my dog and a few entertaining moments at a friends stag night. Pretty pathetic, really. Perhaps you feel the same and that the gloss has gone from your camera phone.
Tue 13 May 13:52 | Matt Round | I don't use mine very often, but it's handy for snapping anything daft I happen to spot, sending email postcards while on holiday, and stuff like shopping for gifts - I can wander from shop to shop taking pics of potential purchases, then when I'm fed up with trudging round sit down and look through them to choose. It's a quick way of making visual notes. Video and audio recording is less useful due to the use of non-standard formats, making sending the files to anything other than another similar phone pretty pointless. Very annoying.
WebWord Comment | Sun 11 May
MadMan hacked up the Movable Type template for the WebWord home page. You can see who posted the comment now (webword, mac, or madman). Also, if a thread is really active youll be able to more quickly identify it when you return to WebWord since the link will be be fresh, so it will be blue again. Nice! Thanks MadMan! (Yes, some day Ill upgrade to the latest version of Movable Type and Ill use some CSS.)
Mon 12 May 09:42 | Joshua Kaufman | What happened to the redesign discussion we were having a while back. Is WebWord planning a proper redesign?
Tue 13 May 11:37 | Mac | The 'blue rinsing' of active items works really well.
MSN Launches World's First ‘Internet Loo’ | Sat 10 May
(microsoft.com) A plasma screen will be located directly in front of them which can be adjusted to a desired height level. MSN is also in talks with toilet paper manufacturers to produce special web paper for those in need of URL inspiration.
Mon 12 May 00:31 | Lyle Kantrovich | Uuhh...Just think about the cleanliness of that wireless keyboard. Yuck. Can I get some MS-Lysol with that?
Mon 12 May 09:39 | Joshua Kaufman | Ewww.
Mon 12 May 19:13 | Lydia | First of all, more than one person coming up with the idea of a computer in a toilet stall should not shock anyone. It isn't exactly the most original idea, and carping about Microsoft trying to squash the little guy is just stupid. Secondly, this idea will go over like a lead balloon. I know people who, Japanese-style, carry their own hand-cleansing and drying materials in their purse just to avoid having to touch any additional surfaces during their bathroom break. Convincing people to touch a screen or keyboard in a public restroom will be next to impossible. For me personally, knowing that a facility was so equipped would be a deterrent, especially if I were a guy. I would not like to think about what some guys would be doing in there. Finally, what does this say about people? To use such a device would indicate either extremely poor time management skills or an Internet obsession that speaks of even deeper trouble. Plus, ewww.
Tue 13 May 10:27 | Mac | Appearently it was a hoax perpretrated by the UK Microsoft people.
The joy of lyrics | Mon 12 May
(bbc.co.uk) It turns out that Im not alone in becoming obsessed with hard-to-make-out lyrics - millions of people around the world have wasted thousands of man-hours pondering over the exact wording of songs, probably ever since the invention of the record player.
Mon 12 May 10:53 | Mac | 'fried chicken'
Mon 12 May 13:35 | Frank Lynch | I guess that they may slave over writing the lyrics just so they can miscommunicate them? I am also surprised at the size of the print on lyric sheets enclosed on 'older' CDs - - their primary market can't see print that small. As for misheard lyrics, I had a roommate in college who always thought Todd Rundgren's 'Couldn't I Just Tell You' was 'Goodnight, Estelle, you...' even though that song title was clearly on the label.
Mon 12 May 16:33 | Matt | Mac - From Queen's 'One Vision,' right? The big difference between that and the songs mentioned in the article is that in the Queen song they actually do sing 'fried chicken' at the end.
Tue 13 May 04:28 | Alan Fisher | On a serious note, I can't believe that the music industry is actually driving sites which publish song lyrics out of business. This is another illustration that the big record labels and music publishing houses simply do not understand their market. This kind of thing creates and maintains interest in their product, and can only lead to higher sales. Idiots and killjoys, the lot of them.
Tue 13 May 06:47 | Mac | Matt, you are correct. I won a bet with my wife because I insisted that Queen sang 'Fried Chicken' at the end of One Vision. Apparently they made up 'filler lyrics' for the song as they already had the tune written. They then replaced them with proper lyrics, but decided to leave the last bit of Fried Chicken in the song. And I agree with Alan that the music industry is shooting itself in the other foot by not realising that allow people to publish lyrics on web-sites will result in increased sales of their bloody CD's.
Why is Apple launching a new music service? | Sun 11 May
(USS Clueless) I think Jobs is trying to reinvent the company. The idea is to create a new business which can survive and perhaps grow as Apples computing business continues to decline.
Mon 12 May 17:40 | Blogmin | Wow, I am constantly amazed by how much one person may know about a subject, and at the same time be completely wrong. The article is well written perhaps, and maybe even convincing to those who don't know about apple, windows, or computer hardware, but it's just plain incorrect. The article is based on the premise that people buy Macs because of some intangible aura that Macs project or something. This is unfounded. Anybody who knows anything about both Windows and Apple computers, inside and out knows that Apples are just better (just overpriced). As a web developer on the go, Mac is the only choice for me. Need to develop a MySQL/PHP application without a constant connection (on the road or whatever)? Try doing that on a windows machine. Also, I work on RedHat/OSX/XP/Mandrake and OS X crashes less then XP and Linux (+GUI, without GUI I have never had Linux crash even once) OS X is more advanced then Windows, you can do more with it, and it crashes less. Those are tangible items that may be placed on a pro-con list and everything. :) Also, I found it very ironic that I read a an attack on Apple’s customer service after speaking with an HP customer support agent who just told me this (5 min ago): “If you want to be able to that, you should have purchased a different machine.” All I wanted to do is format my HD, make a partition, and install XP on one of the partitions. Oh yeah, I was routed to three different people too. Apple isn't going anywhere. When they do something wierd like set up a music service way before anyone else, and sell 1 million songs in a week, there not reinventing the company or anything. It's way more simple then that. They are trying to sell computers. That's it. Why did they make iLife? To sell computers. Why did they build a UNIX based operating system? Why did they alienate customers? Why does their operating system have a funky-but-pretty interface? Is it to make it really easy to use? Nope. Does it help sell more overpiced but high quality computers? Yup.
Mon 12 May 19:02 | Lydia | Yeah, after watching a very savvy friend struggle with partitioning his brand-new PC laptop, then giving up in disgust, I like knowing that a technophobe like myself can do it easily on my older Powerbook. I have heard Jobs say that he doesn't expect anyone to be using Macs in twenty years, but starting the music service is just good business sense for the now - it's no coincidence that it requires iTunes to work and that porting the music over to your iPod is dead easy. It's not in your face, but it does sell hardware along with the tunes.
Mon 12 May 20:33 | daniel szuc | The iTunes service with the addition of the Music store is lovely! The iPod is an absolute joy to use! John is there anyone in Apple usability Webword could interview? Would be an interesting read. I think the recent Apple strategies and decisions have been excellent. Currently I am enjoying the benefits of an iMac and IBM on my desktop and its fun to compare some of the tasks and ease of use issues on both when I have the time :)
Keeping an eye on the wandering eyes of web surfers | Sun 11 May
(The Age) Technology that traces the movements of a web surfers eyes provides a unique view - where users are looking and, importantly, where they are not. Experts are now using eye-tracking technology as part of website and software usabilty testing at one Sydney-based facility, the Access Testing Centre. (Comments: Thanks Daniel Szuc and Fiona Meighan.)
Mon 12 May 13:37 | Frank Lynch | 3-4 years ago the New York Times had an article on the usability labs at Fidelity - - they were heavily into eye tracking back then.
Super-thin screen brings e-paper a step closer | Sun 11 May
Just 0.3 mm thick, the device developed by Chen and team can be flexed without distorting the type and paves the way for electronic newspapers, wearable computer screens and smart identity cards. (Comments: Includes a picture.)
Mon 12 May 10:54 | Mac | Could it be used for electronic toilet paper?
Google to fix blog noise problem | Sat 10 May
(Register) Google is to create a search tool specifically for weblogs, most likely giving material generated by the self-publishing tools its own tab. (Comments: Thanks MadMan.)
Mon 12 May 09:34 | Dave Bauer | What is a weblog? How will google decide? That is a very important question. I have a weblog, with links and some comments on mostly technical issues related to my web applications work. But I also have a page describing how to get Linux working on my laptop. Its my most popular page. I would hate for people to not be able to find that useful information because my home page contains a weblog.