From: Gleanings
To: mark-ups
Subject: Gleanings: angle brackes and all
OPENING THANG
Working on a lot of small projects as well as my day job at CIQ. Excuse the lack of pontification (or is that, enjoy the lack of pontification...)
IA & DESIGN MATTERS
Mike (biggerhand.com) send me this
http://www.customatix.com/
and is always raving on about this
http://www.mycereal.com/store/
both interesting for their customization interfaces (if not for their wacky biznez models)
Cool site collects websites and their evil twins: theft may be bad but it makes fun surfing.
http://www.pirated-sites.com/
Elwell's Glossary of Sociology
http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/frank.elwell/prob3/glossary/socgloss.htm
Wandering navigation (and I hear this is a beautiful magazine. what's the deal with their website?)
http://www.nestmagazine.com/
Dries writes:
"Drop.org has a book module. The book module is a collaborative writing tool whose goal is to write structured and more permanent documents. Each document is a collection of nodes, in this context called "pages", assembled in a tree with chapters, sections and so on."
http://drop.org/node.php?id=203
USABILITY MATTERS
AskTog: Replay TV.
"I expect there is some lawyer out there that would love to make a few million dollars in a slam-dunk class action lawsuit. If you know of one, have him give me a call."
http://www.asktog.com/columns/045ReplayTV.html
NEWS & COMMENTARY
News.Com: Will the "refresh" button become obsolete? (tomalak.org)
A surfer on Excite, for example, would load a full page from the original
source, but then the site would establish a direct connection between Bang's
network and her browser. This would remain open as long as she is on the site,
updating changes in the page as they're made.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-5405498.html
Nua.ie: In this age of unprecedented access to information, however, fewer and
fewer people choose to make the trek to the polls on election day.
Even in countries where the citizens have had the right to vote freely
for a relatively short period of time, the percentage of people voting
in elections is dropping.
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/analysis/weekly_editorial.html
Interactive Week Online: Webmasters are a happy bunch (nua.ie)
Despite the downturn in the technology sector, a new survey of US
webmasters by Interactive Week shows that website operational budgets
are expected to increase this year.
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905356610&rel=true
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Alyssa sent me:
"Whopper of the Week" the lie that the internet is eating all our electricity.
http://slate.msn.com/code/chatterbox/chatterbox.asp?Show=3/30/2001&idMessage=7393
David send me this:
"For the perfect party, invite a mathematician",
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000166941319210&rtmo=LxdNyhLd&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/1/4/ecfmath04.html
"the Quadratic Law of Resentment, to wit: if you combine N people, there are N(N-1)/2 possible ways in which arguments can break out."
andi writes:
"thought you might like some of this site.
http://www.bornmag.com/mother.html
I liked the bit called
"a student asks the poet basho: what is victoria's secret?"
NEW ON THE BLOG
Since so many survey respondents told me they use gleanings to track what I'm writing in the weblog, I'm adding this section:
"do u have any thoughts or resources regarding the application of IA to game design? thanx petros"
I don't, but maybe you do....
http://www.eleganthack.com/blog/archives/00000004.html
"My favorite responses to "How can I improve Eleganthack?"
"better looking"
"naked photos of friends"
"Smell-o-vision."...
http://www.eleganthack.com/blog/archives/00000003.html
EVENTS
Anti-Internet Party
Tuesday, April 10th
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (employed) or 12:00 AM (unemployed)
Paragon Restaurant
2nd & Townsend (next to PacBell Park)
San Francisco, CA
RSVP requested (to help Paragon estimate attendance), but is not required:
http://www.evite.com/jad@greenhouseforstartups.com/tokyojad
From: Gleanings:
To: peeps
Subject: Gleanings: Nothing more than Gleanings
OPENING THANG
I've really been enjoying the results of the survey.
http://www.zoomerang.com/recipient/survey-intro.zgi?ID=5XSNRNLRYKR4&PIN=CXEV
5AJRV28G
At the bottom of this gleanings, I'm going to try to respond to some of the
gleanings-related suggestions.
Today's big news is xplane launched their redesign today:
http://www.xplane.com/
Dig that sitemap at the bottom of every page. perhaps the redesigned EH
should sport that?
It was originally done on Peter van Dijck's Move.to/Columbia site, and he
wrote about its successes here:
http://www.poorbuthappy.com/usability/colombianavigation/
Less exciting -- except to me-- is I went to greymatter. yum! greymatter is
a blogger-like tool for maintaining weblogs. For me, it provides a lot of
freedom: it runs on my server, so I don't have to worry about mysterious bug
fixes that happen right when I've got something to say. For you all, it
gives you a chance to comment on my entries, adding your very fine two
cents.
http://www.eleganthack.com/blog/index.html
DESIGN MATTERS
Flash: 99% good
http://www.webmasterbase.com/article.php/374
In that vein, here is a lovely site (though did he *really* have to open all
those windows?)
aaron haley deemer - photography. (via littlegreenfootballs.com)
http://www.aarondeemer.com
evan writes:
"check this for cool navigation (what else is there, really?)
http://members.ams.chello.nl/mulder.g/
and o'course, http://www.potatoland.org - mark napier's site."
USABILITY MATTERS
Heeeeere's Jakob!
"Summary: Corporations spend millions on PR, and yet the press sections of
their websites often fail to meet journalists' most basic information needs.
In our recent usability study, journalists found answers to only 60% of
their questions across a range of corporate sites."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010401.html
MARKETING MATTERS
Brand Aid
Despite an economic slump, experts say corporate philanthropy remains
essential to branding. Companies such as HP make it work through advance
planning.
http://www.business2.com/content/channels/ebusiness/2001/03/30/29215
NEWS & COMMENTARY
Napster for Ideas
"If you'd like to see one of the most amazing, powerful and revolutionary
applications of the Internet yet, run, don't walk, to Groove Networks and
download Groove (www.groove.net). This is the future of the Web."
http://www.iht.com/articles/15441.html
The Benefits of Staying Small
A profitable grocery delivery service? Bollocks, you say. But PDQuick has
found the right mix of products, technology, and size.
http://www.business2.com/content/channels/ebusiness/2001/03/26/28933
Dan Bricklin: The "Computer as Assistant" Fallacy. (via tomalak.org)
"This type of thinking strikes me as strange. We don't ask for our
automobiles
to be more natural and intelligent, nor do we call for the next generation
of
cars to be like chauffeurs. With cars, we talk about responsiveness,
comfort,
power, cargo size, and safety."
http://www.bricklin.com/assistantfallacy.htm
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Mark writes:
"beautiful - 'But if you don't take these chances, you end up a bureaucrat
all your life.'"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1247000/1247163.stm
peeps! (via kottke.org)
http://members.home.net/lamonteyoung/peeps_8bit/peeps_8bit.htm
ENDPIECE
>From the survey
http://www.zoomerang.com/recipient/survey-intro.zgi?ID=5XSNRNLRYKR4&PIN=CXEV
5AJRV28G
Your gleanings-issues and my answers:
"on this page, http://eleganthack.com/gleanings/2001_03_11_oldglean.html
the powered by blogger image is broken " -- I point to the blogger server,
so I'm afraid I don't always know what's working and what's not. I probably
won't redesign the old archives of gleanings, but if I do, I'll replace the
banners with text links. they don't break.
"An improved search engine would help locate items related to a specific
topic or company. Organizing your gleaning archives based on a set list of
topics, in addition to date, would be helpful. " -- I've wanted to go to a
better search engine for some time now. I've gotten about three good
suggestions for one, so I'll be trying them out and picking one. hopefully I
can document that search as well.
" Can you make the archive more consistent with the rest of the site (so you
can go to other parts of the site)? Make the earlier archived pieces links
active (or indicate that they're no longer active, or changed). " 1. done.
2. here's the deal. gleanings is text. writing all those links as links
takes time. sometimes I have that time in the morning, and sometimes I
don't. The formatting of the links in the archive are basically determined
on the basis of "am I running late for work?"
"More Apropos of Nothing, less News. The rest I'm happy with. " I assume
there are a wide variety of folks on this list, some who like meaty news,
some that like fluffy nothing. Eat your veggies, then get dessert. I
recommend those who enjoy the news take the survey and defend their goodies.
"mention me more" Okay, Mike.
"I love it. But maybe more specific info about business cases." I have no
idea what you're are talking about. please write me a long rambling email
explaining it, and I'll do my best to accommodate you.
"Use yir spillchikr more consistuntly." yeah, right. I need an editor.
"Maybe you could do special features on sites similar to Elegant Hack which
are springing up all over the space" there is no one like eleganthack. (who
is this person talking about, I wonder? I'm curious...)
"do you occasionally add new sources? I've only subscribed about a week or
so, so I haven't noticed yet." I do. I often do blog-wanders, which lead me
to new places. If I dig them, I add them to my list of places to visit. But
yes, I have favorites which I visit again and again.
"do some QA on using <> on links - does it help more than it hurts? I get
404ed all the time because of a trailing ">" at the end of the url. " Okay
folks.. please tell me, do the angel brackets help keep the long links from
breaking, or do they break the links themselves. on my mail program they
work like a charm (when I remember to include them)
I didn't include all the wonderful kudos I got, but that doesn't mean you
shouldn't still keep sending them.
that's all, kids!
It's not paper.
http://www.eleganthack.com
From: Gleanings
To: Unsatisfied
Subject: Gleanings: Giggles, Art and Surveys
OPENING THANG
First:
I want to redesign Eleganthack. That starts with you all, and your opinions:
I built this survey. Please take it...
http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?5XSNRNLRYKR4CXEV5AJRV28G
Sorry about the spelling errors. I have no doubt the number one request will
be for an editor.
And Second:
It's Friday! Art and funnies! Less news! More ways to waste time!
DESIGN MATTERS
Typeface hell
"Your typography is #@$! boring. Did you pay any attention to typeface
choice when you made your stylesheet? Chances are, you did up the keen-o
title and nav button text in Photoshop, then picked a body typeface that
comes with Windows or Mac OS by default, and then threw in a few back-up
fonts "just in case," right? Just like all the other little two-bit hacks
out there, churning out slop."
http://rudeparrot.com/typefacehell.html
When did blogs get so beautiful?
http://www.alttext.com/
http://www.bluishorange.com/
http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com/
http://homepage.mac.com/iblog/
I need to redesign my site. Can I trade everything I know about IA for one
day for everything someone else knows about design? Sigh.
He's baaack (kirkaracha.com)
http://wackyadvice.com/bud/home.html
Interview: Jeffrey Zeldman
Jeffrey Zeldman is an outspoken web designer, author, and speaker.
http://www.ibizinterviews.com/jeffreyz1.htm
holy cow
http://nif.www.media.mit.edu/ecat/
MARKETING MATTERS
Can Apple Move Beyond the Mix Tape?
Steven Johnson on iMac's "Rip.Mix.Burn." campaign
http://www.feedmag.com/templates/default.php3?a_id=1668
TECH MATTERS
Sick of tables? Need some css layouts, but can't bear to code your own?
http://www.bluerobot.com/web/layouts/
more on the hottest thing to hit client-side code since the rollover
http://rudeparrot.com/csscolumndemo.html
more
http://members.home.net/bigstripes/tutorial/box_lesson/
NEWS & COMMENTARY
SF to lose 80 percent of dot-coms
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2702185,00.html
David writes: "There's this slashdot article talking about a new book,
"republic.com", by Cass Sunstein. The book makes the claim that we are
creating little communities of people on the Internet who all have the same
thoughts, ideas and opinions. The very thing that is supposed to encourage
sharing information, free speech and new ideas is being used to eliminate
those very things. The author makes some very valid points, but at the same
time, I think he fails to see forest for the trees. Yes, there are sites
that have filtered opinions and biased information, but those sources have
always existed, even before the Internet. Anyone in this day and age who
still believes that they get their news free from bias or spin is sadly
deluded. To use the popular line, "the Truth is out there." Seek, and ye
shall find. Of course, I haven't read the book, and am basing these comments
on the slashdot article."
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Is it Sunday already? (kirkaracha.com)
http://www.angelfire.com/wi2/bork/blueman_2.html
Kirk says(kirkaracha.com)
"All Nude Teen Stick Figures is one of the weirder sites I've seen lately.
And it's AOL-friendly."
http://www.nudestickfigures.com/
I'm going shopping
http://www.shirtsignals.com/main.php3
dithered.com says:
"The best part about yourgoingtohell.com isn't the absolute intolerance of
absolutely everyone. It isn't the animated gif of the devil's head on fire.
It isn't the rotting carcass at the bottom of the page. It isn't the scanned
image of God from a Jack Chick tract wearing a shirt with "I NEED JESUS" on
it. It's the background music - it's random midi files. I got Rage Against
the Machine's Killing In The Name Of. Now, how dope is that?"
http://yourgoingtohell.com/
morbid? goth? deep?
http://www.thedeadletter.com/
Today's Cruel Site of the Day: (thanks david)
The Inscrutable 8-Ball Revealed
and just when you have something to say...
http://sorry.blogger.com/
what does he put in that tea of his?