I've always been morbidly facinated by Jack the Ripper, so this caught my eye:
Yahoo! News - Crime Writer Says She's Got the Ripper's DNA
"Best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell thinks she may have uncovered Jack the Ripper's DNA and that it could be a match for a British artist who liked to paint morbid scenes of violence against women."
If you are also facinated by the Jack the Ripper mythos, be sure to read the amazing graphic novel From Hell, recently made into a not-so-good Johnny Depp movie.
Ryan points out The Google gods - Tech News - CNET.com
"Pragmatists in the industry even say its dominance in Web search gives Google a new responsibility to maintain fair access to as many sites as possible, leading some to suggest that it be regulated as a quasi-public agency. Last week, for example, an Oklahoma marketing firm filed suit against Google in federal court charging that Google unfairly began listing the company lower in search results.
"So many people are dependent on Google's free editorial traffic that it's like food out of their mouths to lose ranking," said Danny Sullivan, who runs Searchenginewatch.com. "Search engines are not in the business of supporting people's companies. But if they are going to provide editorial, they need to provide support. "
Ad-Free Site From the Masters of the Web Hard Sell
"It was bound to happen. Someone would introduce an Internet portal where people could check their e-mail, read news, look up stock quotes and such without the bustle of big moving, flashing advertisements that make using a site like Yahoo like walking through Times Square. "
Is it enough to be "Yahoo! without ads"
And how close can their design be before someone sues?
To my amazement, pleasure and shock, I've just made the Amazon Bestseller list in Computers and the Internet.
Thank you. I know it was you who did it.
I'm crying right now. good crying.
History of Art for the Intelligence Community may be more a joke than anything-- what if the CIA-types used classic art for reporting purposes-- but it's interesting to think outside the status bar. I'd liek to see a powerpoint like this, in which company data was all indicated via masterworks....
Boxes and Arrows: Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web
pretty cool!
Recently I was on top of that mountain. now it is blowing up. huh.
Mount Etna WebCam (you may not see much due to the erruption producing mucho ash and smoke.)
Unless you have a half-hour at least to waste.
just tripped over Don't Get Me Wrong... | Powered by CafePress.com (well, was pointed to it by an "unnamed source") and it reminded me of the WWJD mousepads.
anyhow, if you are looking for a good christmas or birthday present...
Amazon.com: Books: Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web is finally available *and* the price is right. Back to 20 bucks.
and you can buy it with Jesse's!
see also the official site (kinda sparse still) Blueprints for the Web
from Poetry Daily: Poetry Archive
"1. The road reaches every place, the short cut only one.
2. Those who demand consideration for their sacrifices were making investments, not sacrifices.
3. What you give to a thief is stolen.
4. Despair says I cannot lift that weight. Happiness says, I do not have to.
5. You've never said anything as stupid as what people thought you said."
read them all... 14 is my favorite, I think.
wandering about through Yahoo! Reference - - The Oxford Shakespeare in between user testing sessions--
"And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks."
now that's a love poem.
I love anatomy pictures-- I can't believe all of Gray's Anatomy is online. I think next time I need a villian's name, I'll look here.
Don't you dare hurt here, Lord Volmer!"
I receieved this sweet anonymous email--
"Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by
(someone@somewhere.com) on Monday, October 21, 2002 at 15:32:27
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
email: someone@somewhere.com
message:
Just thought that I'd stop by to wish a fellow Libra Happy Birthday.
You have a great site. Actually, I hated blogs before I came across this one. It was astounding to see how much stuff you have here. And good too.
And oh, Happy Birthday!
PS: Your wish list at Amazon has a wonderful book at #26."
thank you stranger!
Judge: Disabilities Act doesn't cover Web - Tech News - CNET.com
"In the first case of its kind, U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz said the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies only to physical spaces, such as restaurants and movie theaters, and not to the Internet. "
oh.
if you know Seth, you know he is an IA to the bone. If you don't know him, reading Boxes and Arrows: Consolidated Assessment would tell you all you need to know
"Card sorting is so simple a 6 year old could do it. Actually, that's how old I was when I first started card sorting in the late 1970s. Not that I've been in the research field that long, card sorting just seemed a natural thing to do with my baseball card collection. On an almost weekly basis, I'd reorganize my cards. Usually I'd lay them out all over the floor and then get to work. Sometimes I'd sort by team (Go Orioles), or by position (all first basemen), or by year, or by card brand..."
Early explorations of faceted classification!
from Rashmi Sinha's Weblog: Creating personas for information-rich websites
"Cooper's suggested for persona creation suggests detailed interviews, identifying patterns, picking up nuggets. However, there is no tight coupling between user research and persona creation. Furthermore, personas are supposed to be representative of large group. However, interviews are not an appropriate method to find out who representative users are. I am developing a persona creation method that is similar in spirit to card-sorting in conjunction with cluster analysis. As with card-sorting, the persona creation method gets some user input and subjects it to exploratory statistical techniques to find patterns. "
Cooper gets anxious, Jared cheers from the sideines, Goodwin makes an official statement-- gosh, comments just make everything more fun, don't they!
guess it's a nng day today: reading Don Norman's interviews I discovered
"The article quotes me as saying: "But in Cambridge I became so frustrated with British water taps and switches and door handles - those awful sideways handles on many British doors that catch your sleeves. They don't exist in the US."
I actually said "But in Cambridge I became so frustrated with British water taps and switches and doors. The most frustrating thing about it was that no one seemed to care." The rest was added -- I didn't say it. "
Holy cow. This is immoral. indecent. plain old fashioned WRONG.
The flame bait of the moment, usability must die has a page on why AlertBox is nothing but NNG propaganda: The Day Alertbox Died.
Unfortunately his statistical evidence is based on a poor assumption... that how many links and where they link is a representation of how effective an objective critique of usability Nielsen is. That would be like saying Metafilter is more objective than the New York Times, because it has more outward links. A link clearing-house is not the same as a content producer, and alertbox should not be judged on the same scale as the very excellent but very different webword.
None the less, alertbox has been all over the map lately, from wildly inaccurate to insightful and useful. not sure what is going on in the head of Nielsen.
I've been repriced: Blueprints for the Web is now 30 bucks at Amazon-- last week it was twenty. Hope most of you-all who plan to buy pre-ordered!
It's weird to have been suddenly repriced-- I wonder what happened. It's longer than I previously planned, so maybe that's it.
from O'Reilly Network: Google Needs People [Oct. 11, 2002]
"Partly, we fear the truth. Google News will not be the first nor the last software application to perform some work more efficiently and effectively than humans. Mostly, however, we fear the lies and the harmful ripple effects they cause.
Google's claim that it offers "a news service compiled solely by computer algorithms without human intervention" is misleading, at best. What about the programmers who wrote the algorithms? What about the designers and architects who structured and organized the templates? What about the thousands of reporters and editors who wrote and selected the articles?"
But someone hasn't given up on humans yet.. this same week Yahoo announced a new stretegy to blend human intellegence with computer efficiancy. So who will out in the end? Humans are still the most powerful computing machine in existance. But they are slow and fickle. Computers are swift, impartial and effective but uncreative and lack common sense. And one of the hairiest questions of search-- disambiguation-- is still something humans do best. We'll have to wait and see what the future of search will hold.
After a too-long absence, i'm back to bicycling to work as my main form of transport. amusingly, i just tripped over this old pictureon a friend's (excellent) site.
I forgot that it is not only great exercise and good for the enviroment, but that it restores a great deal of sanity to my day. As I bike in, I prepare my thoughts and plans, as I ride home I get rid of stress and worry. it's so damn good for you.
from BBC NEWS -- Net beats books with children
"Children apparently know more about the internet than about books, a survey suggests.
Six out of 10 youngsters questioned knew that "homepage" was the front page of a website - but only 9% could explain what the preface to a book was.
More than a third knew that "hardback" was a type of book, but 57% identified "hard drive" as part of a computer.
Children said they were regularly using the internet to help with their school work. "
I wonder what this study actually tells us. Knowing what a homepage is helps you navigate-- it's a term you have to learn to be able to use functionality. A preface is common in books for older kids, and not all books have them, and if you don't know what it is, it doesn't harm your ability to use the book.
I would have liked to see something on how books stacked up in leisure time... how does Harry Potter do against Yahooligans? Still, it's clear that the web is here to stay is a vital research tool for everyone from children to the scientists who spawned the beast.
Ceesar sent me a makeover of a newly designed 2 million euro website : ThinkTank. | Diseño Centrado en el Ciudadano. (in spanish)
Read through The Best IA Tool You Never Heard Of and despite the joy i feel in my wee heart when I read this:
"Far from a trivial task. I'd argue information architecture (IA) is more important to the success of a site than design or programming. The two are (obviously!) vital. But if your customers can't find your products and information or can't access your services, you're better off not having a site in the first place."
(woo hoo!)
I still have no idea by the end of the article what IA task tinderbox would actually assist me in doing? Manage taxonomies to use in a CMS? Generate sitemaps? huh? All I've ever seen it used for is blogs, which is a fine use, and for personal note management.
my rambling is over at Boxes and Arrows: Leaving the Autoroute
Well, the book is off at the printers, and the Amazon.com buying info is finally correct.
It's a lot more pages than I thought it would be. Of course there are tons of screenshots, so maybe that isn't so shocking. It is due out October 16, just a week before my birthday, so that's a lovely present. And someone suggested reading Judy Blume instead of my book. (hi mike!)
Sorry if I'm am going on and on about this thing, but god, it's like having a baby. it's huge, time consuming and weirdly personal considering it's a "technical" book.
Well, it's almost done. Nothing left but live the screaming agony that it's print and I can't sneak in at 3 a.m. and change stuff....
I love jet lag.
I'm writing this at 4.30 in the morning; I've already been up and hour and a half. The house has a deep quiet like no other time of day. The silence and darkness are empty in a way you rarely seen except in the countryside. I feel myself luxuriating in the vast expanse of morning that lies before me. A sunrise in a few hours, perhaps a walk to appreciate it. Writing, and more writing. Maybe a break to read, or think about reorganizing the kitchen. I’m not sure why evenings don’t offer this same luxury. Weekday evenings are hopeless of course; you are battered down by the days events and willing to hide in the TV set or a book with a glass of wine. Weekend evenings seem stuffed full of people to see and fete. But mornings….
When I was young I would have never imagined I would become a morning person. I used to be dragged kicking and screaming from bed to the school bus, on weekends noon was the earliest I would emerge. But now I’ve come to appreciate the morning. Both Lou Rosenfeld and Jeff Veen frightened me when they said they got up at 5 a.m. each morning to write, but now that sounds lovely. Oddly coding doesn’t strike me as an early morning activity. I have no desire to leap up one morning and say, learn SQL. Late night, as you stave off sleepies with caffeine and kiss goodbye to any alertness in morning meetings, that seems the time to daringly try a new line of JavaScript.
My tragedy is afternoons are quite useless for me. I try to stuff all my meetings into the afternoon; not a spark of the creative instinct inhabits my body from lunch to 4 p.m. I’m alert, conscious (except the 3 p.m. sleepies) but uncreative. Personally I would love a European work style, with a long lunch to be followed by working a bit later. 9 to 5 could not be more arbitrary.
It occurs to me that if we all attend to and map our body’s creative and productive cycles, we can then schedule our daily events to coincide to the time in which we are best suited to accomplish them. Useless from 11-1? Eat and nap! Useless from 2-3? Work out! Creative spark at 7 each night? Why not have an early light dinner and work after? Or a late one at 9, if you think you can catch a second wave late at night. Most articulate at 10 am? Schedule meetings for then. Inarticulate at 9? (as I am—the fingers are awake, but the mouth seems to lag behind about two hours.) Avoid meetings like the plague, or plan to spend a lot of time nodding sagely. To be self-aware is to have an opportunity to be effective. Now if I can just figure out how to convince corporate America that I need a two hour nap each afternoon….
from Boxes and Arrows: Understanding PowerPoint: Special Deliverable #5
"Inserting screenshots into Word is like popping pimples: it is messy and painful, and does not necessarily lead to satisfying results."
yuck. but hey, yeah, exactly. but yuck.
yes, I'm back.
