My sister-in-law just got cast in Play, by Samuel Beckett and sent me this fascinating short video of this fascinating short play.
prolonged effusion of small talk. How I wished sleep would silence mapquest italy I got on to her crib and kissed her her forehead was cold
I could hardly face deleting this spam (and I guess MT trusted it, as it made it easily past the filter.) Especially since I've been on a Jane Austin kick, fueled by PBS's festival.
anildash "if you went into journalism to get rich, the problem was not the fault of technology"
Amelie's hair kept its shape after I removed the tiny ponytails.
Elliott and co-author Frank Gresham identified the top 10 skills that students need to succeed based on surveys of over 8,000 teachers and over 20 years of research in classrooms across the country. They are:1. Listen to others
2. Follow the steps
3. Follow the rules
4. Ignore distractions
5. Ask for help
6. Take turns when you talk
7. Get along with others
8. Stay calm with others
9. Be responsible for your behavior
10. Do nice things for others
Then we spend the next 20 years unlearning them.
for example, The Giant Vampire Frog
I'm not sure how to explain how happy this makes me.
If you work with Engineers, and these days who doesn't? then you ought to read The Fishbowl: Understanding Engineers: Feasibility
An ex-Google non-engineer described 'non-trivial' thus in the Xooglers blog:
It means impossible. Since no engineer is going to admit something is impossible, they use this word instead.
two guys trying to find two girls. they've got to be perfect. most aren't.
I find myself saving my last cookie for her. A really nice one with three different kinds of Belgian chocolate. One that is making my mouth flood just by thinking about it. One that the baker must have cradled like a new born baby, kissed and loved.
Adam Gopnik, one of my favorite New Yorker Writers, brings us this lovely literary look at how two letters can make all the difference: Annals of Biography: Angels and Ages: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
Coming to the end of the book, to the night of April 14, 1865, and Lincoln's assassination, I reached the words that were once engraved in every American mind. At 7:22 A.M., as Lincoln drew his last breath, all the worthies who had crowded into a little back bedroom in a boarding house across the street from Ford's Theatre turned to Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's formidable Secretary of War, for a final word. Stanton is the one with the long comic beard and the spinster's spectacles, who in the photographs looks a bit like Mr. Pickwick but was actually the iron man in the Cabinet, and who, after a difficult beginning, had come to revere Lincoln as a man and a writer and a politician—had even played something like watchful Horatio to his tragic Hamlet. Stanton stood still, sobbing, and then said, simply, "Now he belongs to the ages."...
For the flight home, I picked up James L. Swanson's "Manhunt," a vivid account of the assassination and the twelve-day search for John Wilkes Booth that followed. Once again, I came to the deathbed scene, the vigil, the gathering. The Reverend Dr. Gurley, the Lincoln family minister, said, " 'Let us pray.' He summoned up . . . a stirring prayer. . . . Gurley finished and everyone murmured 'Amen.' Then, no one dared to speak. Again Stanton broke the silence. 'Now he belongs to the angels.' "Now he belongs to the angels? Where had that come from? There was a Monty Python element here ("What was that? I think it was 'Blessed are the cheesemakers' " the annoyed listeners too far from the Mount say to each other in "Life of Brian"), but was there something more going on?
Tagged: Malicious Social Network
"...if called by a panther,
Don't anther."
I thought I'd be pilloried for March Conference Showdown; instead the audience (perhaps tired) seems indifferent. You just never know.
It's funny, but after awhile I kinda forget I can blog. I mean, that blogging is something I do with my time.
Have you ever had a meal that surprised and delighted you, a meal that satisfied a part of you that you never even knew was there, or a meal that comforted you and made you feel like you were home again? This site is dedicated to those individuals who create those sublime memories for us-the chefs. As Michael Ruhlman points out in “The Reach of the Chef”, we are in an age of the Celebrity chef and this is about celebrating those people. And it is created by foodies for foodies all over. This is for you.
I'm in. Are you?
"A guy friend was speaking at a conference recently, and there wasn't a single female speaker," she said. When she criticized that, he e-mailed her, "You sound cranky. Are you having your period?"She feels that women were finally making headway, and then Web 2.0 rolled around, "and all the chicks disappear."
This amazes me and annoys me. I know I should be as proud as Donna at the summit's 33% chick number, but I want 50% and I want it yesterday. I bet over 50% of IA's are women. I know over 50% of internet users are. I also know other net professions are guy heavy and that'll be reflected onward in tech conferences until that number changes.
Nonetheless, I'd like to offer my services right now as token chick on any tech panel, anywhere. I can speak on topics wide ranging from search to community design, and I always poke holes in sacred cows and sometimes I even curse and mock mac users. I'm a fine addition to any panel.
Flip This House - Intern Affairs
This episode (unfortunately, only a small clip is avilable on the site) changed my life. I know that sounds completely crazy, but it did.
The reference in this blog post's title refers to a Stuart Smalley line that has stuck in my head forever... sometimes exactly what you need to see or hear arrives right in front of you when you are ready for it.
In this case, the line from the episode, "Whatever it takes" continues to drive me in my quest to help my company and my family thrive.
Last spring I was in Firenze, and lost my wallet. This year I haven't been able to log on to Orkut, because I couldn't recall my username. Orkut just sent me a email which told me I'd be kicked out if I didn't sign in-- and included my username. I logged in, and admist the stupid spam and weird come-ons in my "scraps" I found this.
It makes me believe in the basic decency of humanity (although a search on google instead of orkut woudl have been more effective.)
Amazing.
Pogue’s Posts - Technology - New York Times Blog
It goes to the tune of the Village People song “Y.M.C.A.” Ready? Cue the disco drums!“R.I.A.A.”
Young man,
You were surfing along,
And then, young man,
You downloaded a song,
And then, dumb man,
Copied it to your ‘Pod,
Then a phone call came to tell you:You’ve just been sued by the R.I.A.A.!
You’ve just been sued by the R.I.A.A.!
Their attorneys say, you committed a crime,
And there’d better not be a next time!"Defintely go to his blog and ready (and sing along) to the rest...
If anyone knows how to fix my front page, and felt like sending me a stylesheet, I woudl gratefully implement it.
AIGA Polling Place Photo Project - Home
With citizens' images and the information that accompanies them, the Project becomes a research tool on how voting happens in America and how it can be designed to be easier, less confusing and more enjoyable. The project intends to collect photographs of every polling place in America, so you are encouraged to participate no matter where you vote, how large or small your polling place is, what kind of ballot you use, or what your party affiliation.
"He is transparent, thus will be able to observe easily your sins."
Who says machines don't have a sense of humor?
I fear B&A was taken down by some folks not skilled enough to get the CIA. It's a pretty lame site to hack, if you ask me, but I guess some people are bored enough to do anything. Anyhow, we are working to recover.
2007 SXSW Interactive Panel Proposal Picker (Round One)
It's vote time! Get out there and vote (preferrably for "Design and Business: Practical Tips for Using design to Define and Realize Business Value" and "Just Get It Up There: New Tools and Methods for Online Publishing"
Of course it's just a popularity contest, but I rather hope something I'm on gets picked so I have a good excuse to attend and write it off....
Some phishing is more charming than others
"At the last reviewing at your amazon account we discovered that your information is inaccurate. We apologize for this but because most frauds are possible because we don't have enough information about our clients, we require this verification. Please login and reenter your personal information."
I try not to open scammail, but I can't say I regret reading this one.
Q: How many Bush administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. There is no shortage of filament. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?
thanks Alyssa!
meatloaf nachos: good idea or bad?
This morning I found my Sandman Companion still open to the page I was on when I left 7 weeks ago (that is a true sign of marital respect, folks. As well as of geekiness on my part.) And Neil Gaimen is saying that he learned in World's End that some stories can't be told in 24 pages. And it made me think of his novels, such as Anasi Boys, which at 416 pages could hardly be called a short book-- except it is. I read it in a couple days. Compare with the truely amazing and terrific Middlesex, weighing in at 544 pages. If I hadn't looked up the two, I would have sworn Anasi Boys was 250-300 pages, and Middlesex was 800.
Now don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed both of these books, and I would recommend you go buy both, as well as American Gods and Virgin Suicides (their other marvelous books). But I find it odd that at a mere 100 pages more, Middlesex feels like I read two or three books, and that lives were changed in the process. Anasi Boys could have been a graphic novel. I feel like I've ordered desert with my husband and he's ordered a souffle and I a flourless chocolate torte can I can't figure out why he's finished his and is now starting to work on mine. Middlesex is dense. But not dense like Chauser, it's very easy and pleasureable to read. It's just the Gaimen book feels like someone has beaten air into it for 20 minutes, like you see on a cooking show.
Neither has filler, neither has useless scenes, neither is written in a overly formal or inaccesable style. So why the difference? What makes a "fast read" a fast read?
Oh, and one more time, go buy Middlesex, best book I've read since Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, which was easiely the best book I'd read in years....
And today I realized suddenly there sure are a lot of Peters in my life. Figuratively and actually.
On the off chance you haven't seen it, japanese_tradition_sushi.mov (video/quicktime Object). Funny!
Also for interest, from the amazing country fo Japan, How to fold a shirt in 4 seconds. Amazing!
How to's in general strike me as the perfect use for video on the web.
I can hope, anyhow. Because they don't seem to be punished in this life.
Wal-Mart Memo Suggests Ways to Cut Employee Benefit Costs - New York Times
I don't shop there. While I can't keep up with who is evil and who is not most of the time, Walmart does such a good job of being immoral on a regular basis, I have a easy way to be reminded not to shop there.
To Conserve Gas, President Calls for Less Driving - New York Times. It's a weird world we live in.
Meanwhile, in the sanity corner, James Surowiecki explains why repealing gas taxes is a very bad idea indeed. Must read!
From BBC NEWS Tingo, nakkele and other wonders
"Words and phrases can suggest the character of a nation. The Dutch vocabulary, for instance, seems to confirm the nation's light-hearted reputation. The word uitwaaien is Dutch for walking in windy weather for fun."
I've taken many a walk on the beach in Holland with my half-dutch husband, and believe me they do think walking in a chilly mist-cum-rain with the wind whipping your hair is a good time. And when you are in Holland, you do too... it's contagious!
Last night I got a call from a woman offering me something... I couldn't understand her and said so, and was quickly handed over to her manager, John. John had the sweet soft voice of a thai waitress, and explained to me I had won a trip to one of three fabulous destinations, airfare and hotel included, and I just had to choose between Las Vegas, Cancun Mexico and New Orleans
Me: "New Orleans!"
John; "yes, and..."
Me: "you do realize it isn't exactly a fabulous destination right now"
John: "Well, I've heard there has been some flooding"
Me: "There are dead bodies in the streets." (I had been just reading the Times and was excitable)
John: "um, well, (returning to spiel) you can take this vacation up to a year from when you accept."
I passed on the chance to be sold a time share, although part of me wonders what would have happened if I had accepted New Orleans and asked to go next week. Would the salesmen have braved the National Guard to show me a sodden house with a "river view"?
from New York Times review of Batman Begins.
No blogging, I got a lot of life going on right now. Just got back from a france trip-- flickr can tell my tale for me. A picture is worth a thousand marching ants, I hear.
In other worlds, I'm reading a lot:
CodeName Ginger
Metaphors We Live By
Wisdom of Teams
Y! the last man.
(yeah, I can't seem to read one book at a time, some kind of weird ADD, I suppose)
All of these are, so far, excellent and recommended, especially Wisdom of Teams.
I'm also watching Deadwood
I couldn't find the article in New Yorker which prompted my hunting it down but I did find this interview . It's a great article, and a terrific show if you don't mind continual swearing and of course, rather bloody fights of the gun, fist, and occasionally, rock variety.
so... not dead, but gathering inputs and ruminating.
When you build a tool, you never know what it will be used for. We used Flickr to document where Heather's borrowed book was.... Flickr: The Heather's Book Pool
I'm spending the morning surfing. I haven't done that in ages. Flickr led me to an amazing blog, which led me to this: The Thought Project. A beautiful example of the power of proximity. Each photo/interview means nothing by itself. But at about the 10th one, suddenly your brain exands and you feel the nature of humanity.
Nick Finck added me to wikipedia:Christina Wodtke .Now they are threatening to delete me! Please save me!
On the way back to the hotel yesterday, I saw a couple with rolling luggage trying to hail a taxi. It was embarrassing. They would watch for taxis, and at the moment that the taxi flew by, the woman who wiggle her fingers at the taxi and call "are you free" in a voice that barely reached me, much less the street. The man seemed too embarrassed to even attempt that much. At 5:30, getting a taxi with a strong stance and loud whistle is already difficult.
At my third month of New York living, I feel much the Manhattanite. I enjoy a egg sandwich at a diner for breakfast, a rushed lunch at my desk, a leisurely dinner with friends (and I can recommend places), I buy dollar jewelry in the garment district, shoes in Soho, and pilgrimage to Century 21 for most else, and enjoy wifi in Chelsea market (as well as watcing the weekend tango lessons) and produce in Union Square. I don't carry a subway map anymore (though I would if I could find a wallet sized one).
But I'm still glad to return to California on Tuesday, to my husband, house and car. Not because I don't love New York (because I have fallen quite in love with it) but because you can only live in a suitcase so long.
Hej all-- I've moved my conference slides, because I really don't think they stand up properly without my explanations. If you've seen the talk and are dying to take a second look, email me and I can get them to you.
But I'd really feel better about waiting to spread them across the web like jam until I can either annotate them, or better yet, write the ideas into an article. It was okay on Are's site, because he did fill in some background from the talk, but it's in Norwegian, so not really accessible to the bulk of the world. And I'll be home next week, so it'll be coming. Patience, patience.
it must be Copenhagen. This little house in Christiania epitomizes the critical Danish value of "coziness."
I arrived Saturday night from Oslo, and have been comfy in Caroline and Lars' house, the Danish IA and Programmer couple who have caring for me in the most lovely healing way possible- red wine and home cooking, and a cozy bed near a wood stove. The travel wearyness has been vanishing from me quickly, though tomorrow I'm back to the road, off to Aalborg.
Yesterday Caroline showed me Copenhagen, and we walked through Christiania. It's a fascinating place, a squatter town in the heart of Copenhagen made up of hippies, with the cannabis and colorful decor (and preponderance of brown rice) that goes with it. It was born in the 1970's and the residents consider themselves a separate country of sorts, in which they pay no taxes, and have their own self-ruled society, which does a excellent job of staying environmentally friendly, providing for all residents and raising families collaboratively.
entering Christiania
leaving Christiania ("you are now entering the EU")
Caroline tells me the city government is trying to remove them-- the land is too valuable to leave to hippies who paid not a dime for it. And this would be a sad thing, as it is both a tourist attraction and thus a source of money, a fun corner of the city that has a unruly almost anti-Scandinavian lack of orderly design and a good break for the residents, and provides some wild areas with nature which all cities need. As well as some quirky hand built houses (though maybe not so quirky to those of us who drive around the hills outside of Silicon valley, where the last of the magic bus folks still reside...).
This one seems ready to resist attack, built up on a stone foundation with ladder access on the side.
This one I would be happy to live in... looks cozy!
Official site of Christiania
it must be oslo.
I had a wonderful time with Superlim in Oslo. The Norwegian hospitality is all they say and more. I'll speak more on this later... in the airport, and a bit tired. Off to Denmark next.
It must be stockholm.
I leave my cozy and modern NH hotel in Brussels for Amsterdam tomorrow. Where to sleep? If someone knows of a reasonable centrally located hotel, please drop me a note. Hotel Area's website is a bit off putting, but I'm open to putting it back on the list.
I just reinstalled Plaxo, in order to get my address book back after my laptop died. I updated my business card. Little did I know, Plaxo emailed all my contacts. I was not warned, I was not told I should double check my spelling or information before sending it out... nope, Plaxo just took it upon itself to spam everyone with the new card. This program's bad UI choices has now endangered relationships. I am steaming mad, and cannot figure out how to counter this amazing faux pas of software, except to uninstall Plaxo and warn everyone else I can find not to use it.
update: Be sure to read the comments
W Ketchup™
Sometimes adsense birings us little joys on days like this. I cannot believe this is not a parody.
I'm in New York, with spotty connectivity, and a severe cold. But I voted! There is always time for the important things in life.
and good luck with the Florida Election Ballot
Life has been busy lately as you might have guessed by the utter lack of blogging. Right now I'm in New Yrok, on a gig. Ate at Nook Restaurant last night and it was wonderful!
If you haven't seen it, BetaVote.com is a pretty interesting expirament. This, like "Hot or Not" are just beautiful uses of the core nature of the internet: Global, interactive, simple. An idea, not a showcase for technology, that lets human interaction come forward.
thanks javier for the heads up
Saturday we took a walk along the ocean. i nearly stepped on a seal. They really blend in well.
Initially he hissed like a cat, and I backed away But I think I merely woke him up-- we backed away slowly, then walked on for a hour or so, exploring tidepools and watching carefully how we tread.
We saw him again on the way back. He was the only one on the beach-- his pals were all out on a rock. I wondered if he was ill, but he seemed fine, just curious and drowsy.
I have never seen a seal so close before. I saw some sea lions when I was kayaking and they were (I'm convinced) considering capsizing me. They are so big, and we are so small in comparison. It's less scary to run into one on the beach, where outrunning it is pretty likely. But it showed no hostility or concern, just mild curiosity.
I like to think it was waving bye-bye as we left. Yet another reason to join us at Asilomar-- seals, sea lions, sea otters and lots of other wildlife are part of the California Beach lifestyle (yeah, everyone talks about the surfers and beach bunnies, but that's farther south. ).
And here we see the new Boxes and Arrows DC headquarters (I wish!)
this fellow keeps it all in perspective for us. (spotted in monterey, where jobs are hard to come by, I hear...)
or are you just happy to see me?
Google's logo today is a bit... hmmm... suggestive.
The Library of Unwritten Books is "an art project travelling the UK, ... collecting stories and ideas for books people would like to write - but never have, and probably never will."
happy birthday to you!
Why you should never put your picture on the Internet
from a recently trip to new york-- oddly beautiful as well as menacing (see larger version by clicking photo). I love urbanity.
eBay item 3720968219 (Ends May-04-04 15:12:53 PDT) - AIR GUITAR!! CHEAPEST AROUND!!
thanks, randy, for providing a friday laugh....
Kitty sympathy card is really peculiar, almost blue velvet peculiar.
Mule Design Store let me find the perfect gift for my favorite philadelphia native.
peter points out a Google Search for findability shows my (former) business card and his feet.
From the face of information architecture to the feet of it?
just noticed you can map out wifi hotspots on Yahoo! Maps
A work of art or a harbinger of violence? / Grisly short story gets student expelled from S.F. academy -- and costs teacher her job
I can't believe this could happen at an art school. Art school is supposed to be the place where we are taught to push the boundries of the acceptable and be a mirror to people's many sides, including dark ones. Amazing.
In the montepmontre, at cafe sancerre.
Paris is a little different this trip; everyone has MP3 players rather than CD players on the metro, many very tiny. no ipod sightings.
Free wifi is newish (for me) and everyone has digital cameras, which was true last trip.
Ah yes, it's true, I'm off to France again. This time with my cousin, who is 20 and will be doign a semester abroad-- we're doing a two girl car trip around the Languedoc before she settles down in Paris. I guess the whole family are francophiles, though I'm the only one who married one.
I leave tomorrow, and return the 29th, and it is highly unlikely I will blog, though I will read email irregularly (if you want to reach me).
one more reason to go to france as often as humanly possible: from Critic's Notebook: An Epicure's 15-Course French Feast
"True to the Gallic film tradition, a handful of this year's movies portray French middle-class life (especially in Paris) as a movable feast in which good food, fine wine, elegant fashions, sexual sophistication and literary erudition together equal civility. Yes, American movies also celebrate living well, but they have a very different attitude toward the good life. Consumption, rather than being cozy and personal as it is in French movies, is usually conspicuous, often cold, and connected to status. In the imperial tradition it is more important to win the game of life than to enjoy it."
Today is one of those unbelievable days in Palo Alto where summer just shows up. Actually, it showed up about three days ago, but today it hit me. I worked from home today, and went for a small walk in the middle of the day. The air was hot and heavy with sun and honey-fragrance... the smell of every tree in the neighborhood bursting into flower.
I can only shudder at the architecture. I have proof that hell is other people-- who could possibly build low concrete groveling beasts like the retail shops that line el camino. Who could come to this place, of flowering trees and rolling hills and the promise of the ocean and the comfort of the bay and say, heck, good spot as any for concrete?
Despite the sins of the developer, my neighborhood is full of trees that mitigate the houses' hubris, and gardens that are tended enough to be full of life, ignored enough to feel human. One homeowner has decided to replace his lawn with daisies. Nearly every house has citrus-- oranges everywhere, grapefruits, lemons and tiny trees bent under giant pomelos.
So I'm at home, the garden is popping with daffodils, and I trying to force myself to work. to work! to --> work.
and I come across a reference to The Myth of Sisyphus. Mark is clearly struggling to find meaning in his existence from the myth, and Camus's reading of the myth is a tailor fit. But me, I begin to reread and find I'd forgotten that Sisyphus had left Hades (hell) to chastise his wife, and found life was just too lovely and refused to go back to hell. And that is why he got stuck with the rock-pushing gig.
"His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. "
He is the original slacker? The grasshopper! the one that refuses to do as he ought. He is the man who doesn't feel like working.
So how does he cheat Hades, and transcend his fate? By enjoying rock-pushing. "If the descent is thus sometimes performed in sorrow, it can also take place in joy. " Work can suck, but it can give a joy also. No matter its nature.
So today work sucks, mostly because nature is doing a tapdance outside my window. But soon enough my mind will return to my labor and it is fine. It is my fate; I choose my labor, sometimes it doesn't compare to play, but sometimes it is better. It is always *my* labor, it is always my life and it is always mine to interpret and to be present in.
"I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy ."
How saturday it all is. I'm on the couch, anti-ergo, and nick stellino is asking how to make shrimp happy. i don't know, but I'll guess it does not involve frying them in a cast iron skillet.
Erin and I were having dinner and talking B&A and we realized with Ryan's retirement into the peace-and-quiet of occasional copyediting, it's an almost all-girl crew over at B&A, with me as publisher, her as chief editor, and Brenda, Dorelle and Liz editing. Not to mention Jen, Emily and Laura copy-editing. Only brave Kirk, our stalwart technie who champions proper mark-up (coming in the new couple weeks-- watch the code) represents the Y gene. I have no idea if it means anything. boys, girls, gurus, writers, humans... so what. but I like to think about it anyhow.
So erin and I are planning the next generation of B&A and are open to wishlists. What would you like to see next?
In the line for the DMV all society
laid low, class flat, life didn't prepare you
for this. The mexicans dress warmly
wait patiently, one line more for them, this line
that stretches out the door into the cold
lightly raining concrete outside, they stand
legs asplay weight evenly placed, arms folded
calm, peaceful, stoic, but you, the professor,
the manager, the soccer mom you had an
appointment, but not an umbrella how
could this happen, why do you need
to take a number?
!
Yet the line has you now, you
can't return to the comfort of the SUV the
volvo the BMW you are stripped of your class
and retreat into into your cellphone until
all calls used up, hop
from foot to foot to keep warm, hoping the
next sucker with an appointment will come
you call to them it won't work while hoping they
will find the hidden passage in and you can follow,
you eye enviously the reader of the zane gray,
the woman balancing her checkbook, then
resign yourself to reacquainting yourself with
your thoughts.
Saw Spellbound tonight. Very good film, plus I learned a very useful word for my little problem: logorrhea
I'm supposed to be writing all weekend. and so I'm ducking, returning, ducking. sigh.
Philippe and I have been discussion entrepreneurship lately. I suspect it has a lot to do with not being able to stand having a boss. He sent me this fable. How many start-ups begin because of this? We always think they are chasing money, but I think that they would rather "starve free."
THE DOG AND THE WOLF, FABLES by Aesop
A gaunt Wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to
meet a House-dog who was passing by. "Ah, Cousin," said the Dog.
"I knew how it would be; your irregular life will soon be the ruin
of you. Why do you not work steadily as I do, and get your food
regularly given to you?"
"I would have no objection," said the Wolf, "if I could only
get a place."
"I will easily arrange that for you," said the Dog; "come with
me to my master and you shall share my work."
So the Wolf and the Dog went towards the town together. On
the way there the Wolf noticed that the hair on a certain part of
the Dog's neck was very much worn away, so he asked him how that
had come about.
"Oh, it is nothing," said the Dog. "That is only the place
where the collar is put on at night to keep me chained up; it
chafes a bit, but one soon gets used to it."
"Is that all?" said the Wolf. "Then good-bye to you, Master
Dog."
Better starve free than be a fat slave.
MORE...Long before Movabletype or Blogger, long before Peterme said the word 'blog" was Yahoo! Picks.. starting back in 1995, it's now an amazing guide ot what is-- and was-- cool on the web for the last 8 years. Yahoo's Picks of the Week for 8-13-95 | Yahoo's picks for Today
A little robot made a perfect landing on mars and my husband went crazy. For ten years of his life, on and off, he's worked on a instrument that now has a good chance at the 2009 mission. If NASA had failed, the next mission-- and my husband's dream-- would have been in danger of never happening. Now he watches Nova like a little kid: I know that guy! I've been there! Look at that animation! Wow! Look, Ames!
I sit on the couch, trying to imagine it: a decade of your life working on a piece of machinery, dreaming of the moment it finds its use, fearful some american idiot who can't convert metrics to imperial may blow it for you-- then the tension is over and nothing is left but a sense of wonder as the pictures begin to arrive...
Triplettes de Belleville, Les (2003)
loved it loved it loved it and can't stop listening to the title song. Don't worry about subtitles-- there are almost no words. And you don't miss them. Strange weird not-for-kids animation; compelling story, bizarre vignettes and ultimately delightful overall.
Of course, with a movie this odd, your mileage may vary.
Top Yahoo! Searches 2003 teaches us the most popular jennifer, how to misspell the governator's name, and reminds us about our lack of schooling (the #1 iraq related search is "map of iraq")
Why is random data so interesting? Who cares, give me some more!
growing up, and even once grown up, there were no wodtkes. I remember once driving around on an island in wisconsin seeing the wodtke name on a tree, and being amazed. The only wodtkes I knew were my grandparents. When I travelled to Europe, I never met wodtkes and when I asked Germans if they knew my name, they never did... and often suggested maybe it was polish. Moving to california produced no more wodtkes, not even in the san francisco white pages.
But the web changed that-- we knew our family was German, and the appearance of wodtke.com was the first instance of wodtkes appearing that weren't definately us. Next Christina M. Wodtke emailed me, wanting to know why I was impersonating her (it is a rare name).
Now Mark Von Wodtke chimes in, commenting on "small world 2" he says "Maybe there are connections between ideas and DNA." He's not only a Wodtke, but a wodtke very much interested in the things I am passionate about. Perhaps he's right.
To test the idea, I explored Amazon and discovered Amazon makes being a Wodtke seem common as dirt. And I kinda like it. I always wanted an ordinary name.
Now I'm cruising their wishlists, capturing snapshots of who they are-- Francesca Wodtke likes gardening and cooking, Dirk Wodtke has a porche 9-11, and likes scooters too; Katie Wodtke likes scupture and is politically active, and Kirsten Wodtke is expecting....
I wanted to know if our possible DNA also connected in ideas, interests. And exploring that, the wishlists became humans, and I suddenly started considering them cousins. People I wanted to write to, buy gifts for, invite to dinner.
What an odd new use for Amazon-- inventing new family.
I've noticed a strange upswing in playful names in my spam from list lately---
Is it a programic accident, or are spammers tired of ordinary names, and getting playful? I can tell you it is making it easier to wipe spam unread from my mail.
They seem to have a rather different idea of exclusive than I do, considering this went to four different email addresses.
Well, proof if you dream small your dreams can come true-- it's not world peace, but today I saw my book packaged with the book that changed my life... Information Architecture for Large Scale Websites. Ah Amazon, the gifts you give! I'm atingle!
I've been sick for two weeks. Some folks at work have been sick a month and more. I haven't slept properly in three nights, from coughing horribly. the nyquel has stopped working, the grog is upsetting my stomach, and I go to sleep so propped up I get a neckache.
I have a doctor's appointment friday... please, someone do you have a herbal or over the counter remedy to get me to that appointment? I ready to pay someone to come over and hit me in the head with a hammer...
Arams is such a pure expression of a joyful rushing onto the web... naive but remarkably useful.
I'm 37 (born in 66.) my husband was abusing my inability to do math to yank my chain.
cruel, but as he pointed out, I do feel younger now.
"WHY SHOULD YOU CARE? Are you, or your friends or relatives, working more now but enjoying it less? Does your family's schedule feel like a road race? If so, you're not alone. Millions of Americans are overworked, over-scheduled and just plain stressed out. "
Now We Are Six When I was one I'd just begun,
When I was two I was nearly new,
When I was three I was hardly me,
When I was four I was not much more,
When I was five I was barely alive,
But now I am six! As clever as clever!
And I think I'll stay six now for ever and ever!
A. A. Milne
what is it about birthdays.. you expect them to be special, to be great, to be somehow different, but the fact is they are arbitrary. A day. That could be any other day. And you are celebrating what?
Not dead yet?
That's actually probably the best thing to celebrate, worthy of being celebrated everyday.
As camus said,
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest-whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories-comes afterwords. These are games; one must first answer."
And he is right-- and it's not morbid at all. Once one has decided to live, what else matters? Not much, just that you live well, and avidly.
So what am I nattering on about anyhow? I've turned 38, and unlike everyone else I freak out two years early rather than freak out at the year ending in zero. It makes sense to me, I've got only two years to accomplish everything I want to have done by 40... quick, quick, do something.
But if all I want to accomplish to is to live, and live fully, why worry?
It's sunny here, and I'm dashing between meetings and should be scribbling out focal reviews rather than blogging, and yet... I'm 38. What do I want to be when I grow up? and is that going to happen soon? Should I finish my masters, write another book, have a baby, buy a house, run away to tibet...????
perhaps i should stick with six. I can be clever forever.
Paris=Eiffel Tower as we all know
I finally went up the damn thing, and it was very nice indeed.
Also of some interest
doors to strange places
Heads on platters
Beautiful Metro stations
A distinct lack of ewan mcgregor
nice knockers
Segways in the rain
This last one was particularly odd and delightful. I was coming out of the Louvre and saw them pass, like gorillas in the mist, larger, graceful, slow and lumbering. Ah, Segway, you strange monster, I thought you extinct yet you live to wander the Paris streets at twilight....
In my day, I've been an
egreeter
hottie
carbonite
yahoo
just occured to me how funny it is, the naming of employees in our biz....
who have you been?
Yo,
My husband is in Denver, messing with x-ray diffraction people and calling me mopeily from his hotel room at the end of the night which is gratifying. I like being the one he misses as his head hits the pillow.
Me, I'm trying to design. Kerning a line, messing with photoshop filters, scribbling madly on paper... all for my private pleasure. I forgot how fun it is to play. To design for joy, not for profit.
What else? I'm biking to work, still yoga'ing, and mentoring two junior interaction designers which is the best part of my job bar none. I think I should have been a teacher. I also do the rest of the management dance-- resource, plan, project, powerpoint-- not so much design. Unless designing a place where design can happen is design. Which we both know it is. Still, sometimes you just need to sharpen a pencil and make marks.
Lots going on rumble wise in the design world these days. Tog wants a new title, Mok wants the old one to mean something again. I used the opportunity to put my foot in my mouth and insulted Tog on the aifia members list (not purposely, of course, but foolishly and typical christina bull/chinashop fashion).
He answered-- huffily at first, but I apologized and he could smell the teva on my breath and forgave me. We had a lively chat which continues still (I'll let you know if anything interesting comes of it) and as the long suffering aifia board continues wishing they had a president who they could trust to speak without a scriptwriter, I've made a pal. I hope anyhow. Which is a bit confusing... I've written tons of nice stuff about Tog, but I had to be a stupid jerk in public to finally make contact? Gee, life is funny. I guess now I'll have to insult Clemet.. Hey, Mok, your mother smells of elderberry!
Meanwhile discussion heats up over ROI on B&A and Julie ruins the Saute de Boeuf a la Bourguignonne... really too tragic.
OKay, I go bed now.
one thing that makes me crazy-- people who leave you a phone message at a perfectly reasonable speed but then say their phone number at top speeds.
If you are giving someone a number, you expect them to write it down. therefore you should speak slowly enough for them to write, and then repeat the number at an average speed so they can check it.
thus: "I'm at five
user-centeredness starts at home!
Spotted during travel...
this last one spotted in death valley, adding an interesting layer of irony...
I saw this spray painted on a train. I'm sure this message has a different meaning for a train geek...
I'm back from a vacation-- Philippe and I drove 2702 miles across the southwest. Las Vegas, Route 66, Flagstaff, grand canyon, zion, bryce and through death valley. more to come soon, as soon as I dig myself out from under my thousand emails.
You see the kind of people I work with??
Orphaned Snowmen
Did they loose interest?
found by adam
my husband and I saw this bird on our weekend away-- any idea what it is?
I'm sick like I haven't been in years.
I didn't think you could make a good movie from a handful of letters between an ecentric new york writer and a english bookseller.
I was wrong. 84 Charing Cross Road (1986)
So my husband and I are watching wild wild west, and there is a scene where the two heros are facing an evil villian who uses magnets to use flying saucers to assinate america's finest scientists and they are about to die if they step ourside an electromagnetic fence, and my husband turns to me and asks "were they cultivating corn in the late 1800's?"
geeze.
Favorite email to Boxes and Arrows
"Hello...We are glad we found you!
We have a project that will require large quantities of either 3" tubes or 3" triangular box which will be 96" in length. Do you make this? If you do, please email me with prices/lead time on either of the above with quantities..."
Finally, a business model for us!
I rarely link to comments, but this one is sweet... empiricists acheive their best work after 35.
Philippe's really getting into kite flying and attaching cameras to those kites. He just sent me Kite Photography in 1906, featuring pictures of san francisco just after the earthquake taken from a kite carrying a 46-pound panoramic camera.
listening to Forum: Broadcasts, in particular Garrison Keillor mock Ginsberg and laud Bukowski (mixed feelings on both cases, but still, always nice to see a strong opinion based on something other than literati pronouncements) and was gratified to hear him say "MissourA", an artifact of my own midwestern accent I cannot bring myself to expulse...
wine, women and smoke is a nifty little animation, made more pleasurable as one realizes it's all back-drawn... they are all good, though pickle may be my other favoritist.
I'm having a lazy slow morning, this last day of 2002. I'm surfing. I realize I don't surf anymore. I used to. I used to get up in the morning, pick a blog-starting point, and go... noting sites as I went for the gleanings newsletter.
But writing the book slowly weaned me off random wanders, and forced me to do only directed searching-- research. Soon the only odd sites I'd find were mailed to me (thank god for friends, family and readers-- keep me sane!).
And now, I'm wandering again, following links, running searches and my curiosity is peaked... wondering what will become of gleanings. I keep thinking I should resurrect it. But do I want to? When I started it, there were only a handful of blogs pointing this way and that-- now there are thousands.
Maybe essays? Or links with mini-essays? Or maybe nothing. Maybe it's time to retire the old newsletter, and go to digests of the blog. Or maybe it's time to stop blogging? it's not like I don't have enough ways to communicate, via B&A, AIfIA, mailing lists and so on...
I wonder what 2003 will be like, I wonder what role I'll play... what will make me happy...
kevin writes "I'm surprised this is button is allowed (on Apple Print Center)"
This is me back from Iowa. ahhhhhh
Red Scare - Stay away from that Beaujolais Nouveau, sucker. By MikeSteinberger
"Why it was decided to make the region's humblest juice -- a wine mainly borne of its worst vineyards, a wine barely removed from the fermentation vat, a wine that is nothing more than pleasantly tart barroom swill -- its international standard bearer is a question that will undoubtedly puzzle marketing students for generations to come. "
Nouveau is a headache recipe. Just don't do it. As well, I'd say stay away form the moulin a vent... it often has a barnyard quality that is off-putting to american palettes. try a bottle of tasty morgon instead.
I'm on a space kick... check out the nasa pictures, including the lovely Leonids Over Joshua Tree National Park
some days I feel like an evil clown
Couture-- kind of naughty, i guess. I like the sweat shop-- er, factory-- tour.
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.
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...
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 first discovered the high line in a new yorker magazine article. I was completely enchanted... the vision of a place just one story above the city streets where nature was reclaiming her right to run how the earth was decorated cheered me. Lately I've been despondant over humans. More on that, probably in a bit... but here is a case where nature was patient, saw her opening and went for it. And dang it if humans didn't have the sense to try to protect this small victory. Check out :: Friends of the High Line :: for some wonderful photos (of seasons! rare for us west coasters) and commentary.
More photos of the high line.
Does anyone know why sean connery made the Highlander II?
Nadav points out these charming Diagrams of Skyscrapers
So, since I'm digging through old photos, I guess I'll share this one. Good for a giggle.
Let's call this a lesson in perspective.
I spotted this statue and dashed across the street to see if what I thought was what I thought
It wasn't. Teach me a lesson!
city search porn finder finds this food description a bit too sexy, i guess...
"My favorite: a generous slice of foie gras (the best I've had in the city) with a glass of Sauternes, followed by a succulent filet mignon brais with delicious "pet*** lgumes" and "arros" with a great St-Emilion. "
oh la la!
I just saw it. jesus. it's one of those well written good acting brilliant direction wonderful cinematography I couldn't possibly recommend you see it films.
I'm not sure how I'm going to sleep tonight.
Because I have been cloistered with thatdamnbook(tm) I didn't realize round three of Click To Add Title was up. It's a good one, too, we're moving into deeper waters now. Sippy's in particular stands as proof that PowerPoint makes a fine artistic medium.
Very busy these days.
Buit I wanted to stop and inform you that if you search for "hats" on google, this is the first site that comes up.
I'm not here to explain it, just to point it out.
For reasons beyond my ken, this tiny animation is making the familial forwarding rounds accompanied by the usual "ho ho hee hee" and "lol"
I thought it was pretty and well executed but not funnybone tickling. but hey, who am I to judge?
From random thoughts - ideas aleatorias
"It's six AM and the sun has not come up yet, a huge group of people have gathered on an extremely cold morning to take their clothes off."
I'm not completely sure I understand the liberation/naked combination but it's impressive to see a mass of naked pink bodies, like so many sardines in a tin.
I click THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS' DIAL A SONG
My latest favorite Google expirament, Google Answers has provided me with something funnier than the comics: the sucidal chipmunk.
click to add title: PowerPoint as God Intended makes more sense if you read this first.
then it's dang funny.
A tribute to coffee, personal and lovely.
I was just about to give up being cranky for lent, when I discovered all that extreme public crankiness (EPC) might bring me: my own blog category.
yeah, yeah, I know
"I know Jakob Neilsen and you're no Jakob Neilsen."
We all have problems. Minnesota is NOT the solution.
for what could well be the two hundredth time. I used to watch it every time I got insomnia. Lauren Bacall, Humphery Bogart.
Bogart plays Philippe Marlow -- a "private dick" or a "shamus" depending on your favored terminology
"Eddie Mars: Convenient, the door being open when you didn't have a key, eh?
Philip Marlowe: Yeah, wasn't it. By the way, how'd you happen to have one?
Eddie Mars: Is that any of your business?
Philip Marlowe: I could make it my business.
Eddie Mars: I could make your business mine.
Philip Marlowe: Oh, you wouldn't like it. The pay's too small."
Marlow's a tough guy, honest, has a good right hook and women fall in his lap despite his bulldog looks and his lack of charm....
"Philip Marlowe: I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like them myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them on long winter evenings."
The whole movie is full of amazing quotes. The first 20 minutes is hypnotizingly clever.
"General Sternwood: Do you like orchids?
Philip Marlowe: Not particularly.
General Sternwood: Ugh. Nasty things. Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men, and their perfume has the rotten sweetness of corruption."
My favorite scene comes a bit later though. Bogart and Bacall are flirting, and it's very ... naughty....
Vivian: Speaking of horses, I like to play them myself. But I like to see them workout a little first, see if they're front runners or comefrom behind, find out what their whole card is, what makes them run.
Marlowe: Find out mine?
Vivian: I think so.
Marlowe: Go ahead.
Vivian: I'd say you don't like to be rated. You like to get out in front, open up a little lead, take a little breather in the backstretch, and then come home free.
Marlowe: You don't like to be rated yourself.
Vivian: I haven't met anyone yet that can do it. Any suggestions?
Marlowe: Well, I can't tell till I've seen you over a distance of ground. You've got a touch of class, but I don't know how, how far you can go.
Vivian: A lot depends on who's in the saddle."
I recommend renting next time you can't sleep....
Huge Magazine's Thriftstore Art Gallery
My magic moment from the conference was when Matt Jones taught me the new "IA gang sign." Here he is joined by Brad " Yeah I live in Palo Alto and I'm really an interaction design wanna make something of it" Lauster and Izumi "yes, we do have IA in Japan it's spelled Ray-Zer-Fish., don't make me kick your ass."
Damn, you tough!
Anyhow, it involves spelling backwards, so I keep doing it wrong...
Clip-On Tie: The Diary of a New York Art Museum Security Guard
"If the fable of "The grasshopper and the ants" was amended so that the world ended before the turn of winter, then the grasshopper would have been wiser and the moral would have vindicated him. In a story, the location of the ending is very deliberate. "
have you seen Asimo? You've got to watch the movies. I kep thinking, this has got to be a guy in a suit.
Sorry for the lack of bloggage lately; I promise it's worth it. Not only am I working, and the book creaking along but Boxes and Arrows should launch next week....
Who the Kevin Bacon of Marvel superheros is. Find out in Reality check foils Spider-Man
Joey Green shows dozens of new uses for old products. Use alka seltzer to clean your toilet, use yogurt to relieve sunburn pain!
I'm still sorting out how to handle the newsletter. But today's glean is below...
MORE...Hardline Hindus to Fight 'Obscene' Valentine's Day
strangely enough that's the line my husband's been taking...
If a sidebar is a blog's bumper, then these are definately the new bumpersticker
Read on elan.org
"Hunger of the heart is fed well by American cheese slices buttered with Nutella."
Nutella, for the uninformed, is a hazlenut spread a bit like sweet chocolately peanut butter (IMO).
I had a friend who, when homesick for nebraska, rhapsodized about deep fried grilled cheese sandwiches. Yep, take your standard grilled cheese sandwich, dip it in batter and pop it in the deep fryer. I've also been startled recently by stories of mounds of deep fried pickles and krispy cremes coated with frosting with an extra side of frosting for dipping.
In college with used to make scotch sundays... vanilla ice cream with a glass of scotch poured over it. I'm sure I've got quality time in hell schedualed for that one.
It suddenly occurs to me I'm overdue for a good binge.
The word of the day came in my email inbox and I thought, how apropos
"kilkenny cats (kil-KEN-ee kats) noun
People who fight relentlessly till their end.
[From a pair of proverbial cats in Kilkenny who fought till only their tails
were left.]
Carbon Log wakes up under Noel's touch.
A Day Late
is a magical site. It reminds me of the advent calenders my sister and I had growing up. Unlike the crappy cardboard ones you see in stores today, it was sewn of cloth, and each day we'd unbuton or unzip a actual pocket to get a tiny present... a hello kitty tape dispensor, or a plastic giraffe.
small joy on a daily basis is a precious thing.
Someone was kind enough to scan a 1971 Sears Catalog. Now that's fashion!
hell is recognizable by its bad signage.
scottmccloud.com - The Morning Improv #7
Half-bakery showcases many half-baked ideas, from half-baked (a panic-PIN -- a secret code you use to alert authorities you are begin forced to withdraw against your will) to nearly raw (an anti-cat -- who eats cat feces and excretes cat food, to live in harmony with a traditional cat)
much big fun.
I discovered it was J. R. R. Tolkien's birthday today.
I read his books in seventh grade. At that time I was living in Iowa, and they seemed a fantastic and impossible alternative to the grey misery I felt. I dreamed of walking in lothlorien, and of living in rivendell. Little did I know that san francisco existed....
I started rereading them recently, prompted by a movie trailer that made me think "This time they might have got it right." Me and thousands of others-- LOTR holds half of amazon's top ten list.
I'm now disturbed by the classism and luddite tendancies of the author's work, but yet... elves. drwarves. darkest evil, and brave painful choices.... It's still a great story. One of the great ones.
Happy birthday, JRR.
Zeitgeist 2001 shows what we searched for, month by month.
Design Your Own O'Reilly Book Cover!
MSN Astrology Daily Horoscopes offers anti-resolutions. Since this will be gone tomorrow (daily link)
I've copied it over (I assume the lawyers will be knocking on my door shortly, but a day without a cease and desist is like a day without bacon, I always say)
For years now my sig line has been "It's not paper." We can't design or architect for the web without understanding its nature (see my earlier post, The beginning of thinking)
Owen has a bright and remarkably calm "rant" on desingers that don't get the medium they are working in.
"This isn't news to anyone. But the web isn't screen either. Or more accurately it is print, and screen, and voice, and many other things. Right now it's December 2001 and chances are you're reading this on a PC or a Mac, so you think you're building pages for PC or Mac. Well, just stop. That's going to confuse the heck out of you as you build with CSS."
for fun sakes, some of my other sig lines have been
"Sweetcheeks, your desperate clinging to Old World technology was endearing at first, but now it just makes me tired. Paper is for the little people. "
--Heidi and Josh
"She was sinister but she was happy" --Robyn Hitchcock
To make two bold statements: There's nothing sentimental about a machine, and: A poem is a small (or large) machine made out of words. When I say there's nothing sentimental about a poem, I mean that there can be no part that is redundant.
William Carlos Williams
feel free to share your favorite sig.
with xmas coming, who do you know who needs a Jakob mousepad?
MenWhoLookLikeKennyRogers.com has got our font. dang!
thanks brian
A friend has been painting the Castro with a thick palette knife. the scans don't do them justice-- they are lovely. 
Well, the season is upon us, so it's time for another link to It3C
 | If I was a James Bond villain, I would be Octopussy. I enjoy the circus, jewellery smuggling, and dealing with renegade Russians with nuclear bombs. I am played by Maud Adams in Octopussy. Who would you be? James Bond Villain Personality Test |
I like this vision of "T-shaped people" -- fun visual.
"IBM is looking to recruit 'T' shaped people, Dave Roberts of IBM's Ease of Use, told practitioners at the latest Usability Professionals Association (UPA) event in London.
The 'T' that IBM desires is a combination of breadth of knowledge and depth of understanding. Coming at a time when training and accreditation is high on the agenda of both the UPA and the B-HCI-G, this model of skills distribution has begun to raise interest across the board."
Today is one of those days I'm soooo glad I live in California
it's cold, but I'm not buried in snow...
Secret Santa is a small pleasant thing you can do for yourself and others.
tech support calls from hell thanks david!
Yahoo! Feedback is a survey where you tell Yahoo how much you love pop-unders. now go....
(thanks, Jeff Lash!)
A sign of the moral decrepitude of american/ our lousy schools and the horrible stress the way has put us through? or just a typo?
Mark Eastman Photography: Visible Signs
a lovely thing, pointed at by antenna
Amazon.com: buying info: Jeffy's Lookin at Me!
"Voyeurs are not hard to please, July 3, 2001
Reviewer: Joshua Lobo (see more about me) from New Haven, Ct
"Jeffy's Lookin at Me!" is a beautiful book filled with top-notch images that that deliver an intensely sexualized look at the world. Often the images derive their power from the rawness of clandestine cartooning, but to characterize Keane as entirely raw or clandestine would be inaccurate. The book explores a range of perspectives. Sometimes the pictures are nothing more than a gentle glance at a stranger in a compromised position, while other images seem to be made by someone enjoying the wildest night of his life. Some of the pictures are dark and shadowy while still others are sharp and precise. "Jeffy's Lookin at Me!" is a book that can take you from an innocent glimpse of panties to a run-down backroom and leave you enthralled at any point in-between. If you expect something Playboy-esque, for under the bed or on the toilet, you'll probably be disappointed. If you find yourself undressing strangers with your eyes, then this is the book you've been waiting for. "
See also:
thanks to the members of the CBP list, esp John Levine and Barry Press. Too funny.
today is one of the few bianary days this year
10-11-01
it's also half way to my my birthday... ... 11 doubled is 22, right? right? oh never mind....
I still can't help anyone hack. Yet I still get requests. the latest:
"see i think my gfs cheating on me.
pls i need her password desperately.
this is a matter of life and death.
pls i really need ur help.
pls.....i will be grateful if u help me.
pls."
and
"hi dude... i got some Ver of Spooky i dunno what exactly it is but i wanna have the Final version and stuff..if ya please mail me about this message ... tnx "
I need a new domain name.....
Whenever I'm blue, I like to send a Taste-E Chop Postcard! Gosh that little porkchop sure gets around....
These days we could all use a laugh. "how to watch TV" provided it for me.
Two things are making me feel well these days. Poetry and art-- especially photographs.
The poem of the day on the infamamous day is "Two Variations on a Theme" by Stevens, which opens with
"First there is the thing and then there is
the account of the thing, bent into new
alphabets."
worth remembering as teevee and politicians rewrite the inexplicable into the understandable.
Salon.com explains Why did the buildings collapse?
"According to Gregory Fenves, a professor of Civil Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, the planes weakened the buildings' structures at key points. Fenves, working on information gleaned from preliminary TV reports, stressed that he was speculating. He said that if the planes had hit the structures higher, they could have merely damaged their tops; if they had hit lower, they would have been up against the enormous weight and resistance of the base of the buildings. "
A gay character in the comic "For Better and Worse" caused some hubbub, so the creator has been providing alternative text for those of delicate sensibilities (nobody say Iowa!)
"The Golden Gate Tunnel is the first tunnel in the world to provide a true transportainment experience."
art-models demostrating a cut-rate kama sutra.
D'oh and the Deity: `The Simpsons'
The family religion: "You know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't work in real life. Uh, Christianity."
for the library geek within: the great library card collection
I know folks are pointing to david's flash movie (and thanks to biggerhand.com for the translation), which is a goofy bit of work done much in the style of the "whee" squirrel flick, but I think his blog, Lagrange 3 is where the best surreal humor lies. Lack of sunlight does something to these people, doesn't it?
HistoryWired: A few of our favorite things just became one of my favorite things. It's not about creating an interface that allows users to efficiently complete information-retrieval tasks. It's about exploring, and contemplating and discovery....
thanks dan
Saw an interesting snippet of a study in The Standard. Reminds me that every thing that we do reveals who we are, even how we punctuate...
|
HE TYPED, SHE TYPED | ||
| Don't try to fool Susan Herring. The professor of information science at Indiana University can tell whether an e-mail was written by a man or woman by reading only a few lines. "People actually exaggerate their gender online," says Herring, who has been studying sex differences in online communication for 10 years. Here are some of the tell-tale signs to watch for. - Liz Krieger | ||
If you see... | It's a ... | Because ... |
| If I'm soooo tired | woman | Weakness for repeating letters. |
| Ah, hell! Damn! | man | 92 percent of profanities (and 90 percent of sexual references) come from men. |
| WOW, HEY | man | Fondness for interjections. |
| :) :( :P | woman | More likely to use emoticons, a way to how they feel. |
| ; | man | The only emoticon guys use more. Flirty. |
| LOL, ha ha, hee hee | woman | Emphasizes conversational engagement. |
| heh heh | man | Flirtatious juvenile Beavis. |
| !!!! | woman | Generally more effusive. |
Dog translator barks up the right tree
A new gadget released in Japan is trying to reduce the lingual divide between dog and its owner.
World-Wise Web Teeming With Traveler's Sites
Thanks for the honest comments about html mail.
I'll keep looking for a plain-text solution. meanwhile, if any coders want to take Lane's suggestion.... Also the redesign creaks along as I find time and a few more comps are here
on either these topics, please post!
Jeff pointed me to geekstyle, a british t-shirt company featuring shirt with slogans such as "I got 80million in venture capital for my .com idea and all I have left is this lousy t-shirt" and "Memes don't exist. Tell your friends."
Now I know what I want for xmas...
My sister send me some sites that participated in the blog-a-thon
"Bloggerlist is a list of all the
participants. Then there's davezilla
Dad liked this one
This is the one that did website reviews"
Of course she participated also...
one more thing.. to make this process more streamlined (i.e. easier for me) I'm considering moving to html mail. I'd like to know if this will make anyone's life hell....
an intriguing side effect of napster shutting down seems to be that porn is more accessible than ever before. or as the friend who sent me the link said, "Isn't it great how we have the government to make it easy for people to find the tools and get the instructions for how to find pornography?"
Television pictures were beamed around the world last week of great white sharks tearing chunks of flesh from the dead Southern Right whale while sightseers in boats patted the sharks' snouts and even climbed onto the back of the whale as the sharks fed.
This is a completely insane and wildly valuable and pleasurable trove of photographs of Art and Architecture.
Shall I syndicate EH?
How to syndicate your weblog with Greymatter & Javascript
Software Trove from IHT readers
Italian volcano. i heart satellite photos
if, by some odd chance you have not see the wheeee squirrel, please do so now.
MYTHOPOEIA: The Making of Myths
Has many strange and compelling images. Interesting for its navigation.illustration choice, as well as the intriguing content.
they'll be mocking me any day now...
This study is an attempt to measure how much information is produced in the world each year.
This appears to me to be an excellent way to waste time.
"Until recently, it has been quite easy to pick an American out of a crowd on European streets, but no more. Its not that the Ugly American has totally vanished -- there are still plenty of them wandering the world -- but in recent years they have been challenged by the Germans, English, Russians and a host of others."
German investors and the Romanian government are planning to develop Dracula Land, a "terror" theme
park in Transylvania that officials hope will boost the country's ailing tourism industry
Ethem Sahin thought his friends were kidding when they told him how he ended up in the hospital. But they witnessed the cow fall through the roof of the coffee house where they were playing dominoes and knock Sahin unconscious.
ambisinister (am-bi-SIN-uh-stuhr) adjective
Clumsy with both hands. (Literally, with two left hands.)
[Latin ambi- both, + sinister, on the left side.]
"Staff sergeant Gawkward hoped to win a medal or two by firing two
rifles at the same time. When he managed to hit his fellow soldiers
instead, all he earned was the remark ambisinister in his service record."
-Anu Garg, AWAD, Jul 20, 2001.
I'm watching Simpsons, the one where Homer makes a dating video for Ned.
Lisa: "There are other wipes than star wipes"
Homer: "Why have hamburger when you can eat steak every day?"
I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere.
Chasing the sun is a lovely content-rich site about aviation. dude! (via
littlegreenfootballs.com)
I don't even care what this is about, I just want to chant "techno-jihad" over and over again.
On its face, the e-Japan initiative makes perfect sense, once you get past the basic contradiction of a top-down initiative designed to create a bottom-up revolution. Unlike previous misguided governmental techno-jihads this seems to embrace seemingly foolproof ideas..."
who is this lonely? who is this playful...
Serious Germans who have tried signing up for courses and formed clubs to try to discover the meaning of humor are now being offered laughter holidays. (via littlegreenfootballs.com)
When it comes to food, music, and more, which do you prefer: ubiquity or authenticity?
My dad taught me how to make jam. it's easy-- I've done it this way dozens of times and it always works great. Get a bunch of fruit, such as plums or peaches or cherries or strawberries or whatever. wash it and remove inedible bits. put in a large saucepan (preferably non-stick) and add an equal amount of sugar. yes, that's a lot. if the fruit is very sweet, you could add less. turn the heat on as low as possible and ignore it for a couple hours, just swinging by every half hour or so to stir and see if it's jam yet. it really works. The skins provide natural pectin, and it thickens as it cools so don't worry if it seems a bit thin when the fruit is mushed. You don't even really need special jars, unless you plan to keep your jam forever. I use cleaned left-over pasta and mustard jars. You will have to keep it in the fridge, though, if you don't have the fancy jar.
Happy Fourth, Americans! Happy wednesday, all you .de and .es and .uk.'s!!!!
Socks and shorts: don't do it
delights me, in the way only small things can.
my sis wrote an amazing post on fear of cancer. very human.
"Intercourse is far too dangerous for the layman to participate in. We all enjoy a visit to the circus, but that doesn't mean we should get into the cage with the tiger! Like skydiving or high-wire walking, sex is something best left for trained performers - professionals who have honed and surgically altered their bodies for use in the pornographic arts."
She's loking for poor unemployed dot-commas who will do anything to make their next SUV payment.
Pose Nude with my Sock Monkeys
The New Yorker Shouts and Murmurs
"The sound bite, that form of speech we encounter in the media every day, seems a unique contribution of our technological age."
I went with BearShare, and have been very happy.
SF apartment ads. What scares me is that the second didn't seem like a parody.
For the easily amused
pirated sites revealed! Steal this design...
http://www.pirated-sites.com/index1.shtml
Pork, a love story
I've gotten really into a type of music made in the south of france and I made a radio station out of it to share. I may add some of the other cool french stuff I've found. What's playign there is a very cool synthesis of flamenco, accordian, rock, rap and I dont' know what... it's hard to describe. But I heart it.
http://www.live365.com/cgi-bin/directory.cgi?autostart=calientechao
Yes, I will read anything lance (glassdog) arthur does. No, the world does not need another community discussion site. And yet.... you gotta dig a place where it's not only okay but required to be mean.
http://www.glassdog.com/unhip/
San Francisco hires 500 goats to eat weeds, trash
"Until they were driven out by rising land prices, goats were a common sight in the more bucolic parts of the city, particularly on the grassy slopes of Potrero Hill and in odd corners of the Glen Park district."
It is a damn shame when the rent gets too high for goats to afford to be able to raise their kids in the city.
~~~
Hoax warning tricks some into deleting AOL
metafiler giggles over it
~~~
OSLO, Norway (AP) - "What the new bouncer at a Norwegian pub lacks in
brawn, she more than makes up in experience: She's a 91-year-old
great-grandmother. "
~~~
Titanium PowerBook causes bomb scare
davezilla has started the bloggers who are calling it quits
~~~
This is a poem made up entirely of actual quotes from
George W. Bush. The quotes have been arranged only for
aesthetic purposes, by Washington Post writer Richard
Thompson. Too good not to share, especially during
National Poetry Month...
MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
by George W. Bush
I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses.
Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize Society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!
I returned from France to hear about the (excuse me) ridiculous tale of Kaycee. The real victim though is Henry, whose existence was apparently thrown into doubt!
http://www.biggerhand.com/
Believe me, I've had my eardrums shattered by an excited caterwaul, and I've heard him list off 50 pokeman while eating an equal number of tortilla chips... he's real. Daddy Mike was driven to put up references for Henry which are also utterly true.
http://biggerhand.com/abouthenry.shtml
Henry's always entertaining and 100% real diary
http://www.biggerhand.com/henry/2001/henry052801.html
~~~
While cleaning out old memos from my palm, I found this lovely and useless Belgium "bande desinee" site.
~~~
Despite the lack of site, the FC newsletter suggests that this is a fine multi-city party announcement list.
www.bernardoslist.com No personal recommendation one way or the other.
~~~
game whose name says it all
~~~
my sister sends me the sequel to the bigcat story
"Fat Cat
You probably have received a picture of a man in a den or living room holding what appears to be the largest house cat ever known to exist on the planet. The picture is very impressive, and the man holding the cat looks very proud. The man, according to the email, is Roger Degagne who lives on the shores of the Ottawa River. According to the story, the cat is the product of two cats named Lost and Found who was discovered near an "abandoned" power plant called AECL (Atomic Energy of Canada Limited) 15 years prior to the photograph. The cat pictured in the photograph is supposedly 89 pounds and 69 inches long.
According to AECL (they are still in business, by the way) they have no record of a Roger Degagne ever working for them at any time, nor do they remember ever having two cats at the property. As far as the picture, it seems odd that such a heavy cat can be so easily lifted by a man who obviously is somewhat out of shape. According to the Guinness records (www.guinnessworldrecords.com), the largest cat is Snobie and weighs a whopping 98 pounds, but is just over 40 inches long.
The picture is probably some kind of farce (fake cat, overlaid images, etc.) and has actually been circulating on the Internet since about 2000 and it has only been recently that a story has accompanied the big kitty.
- Michael Vincent "
From Emazing.com
peer-2-peer evolutionary beasties
(disclaimer: not sure how stable/sucky-of-resources this is... careful...)
the wedding channel!
Peter Saville, Nick Knight... oozing quality
(but lacking usability... beware it spawns full screen windows, needs every
plug-in etc., y'know... web art...)
just enjoy it.
Bye!!
Excerpts from "USA So Weird! The Foreigner's Guide to America."
"Restaurants that combine food and entertainment are an American specialty. You've probably heard of such famous American establishments as Planet Hollywood and the Hard Rock Cafe, where you can enjoy a variety of fried foods underneath Jean-Claude Van Damme's underpants or Neal Schon's guitar. Many large cities have "fifties"-themed diners, where you can be transported back in time to a more innocent era where hamburgers cost nine dollars."
Went to biggerhand to catch up on how Henry's doing. you should too.
I think may 5th was aimed at me....
Blogging wears folks out.
So my sister said, "I got 37 hits last week!" If you have a second, click through and see if we can give her 38 this week
Actually you may like her content... she is a terrific writer. Though I'm a little concerned about this shoe-obsession she has.
OPENING THANG
Still busy, though I am occasionally sneaking off to add a blog entry here and there. I finally solved the a-list mystery, thanks to Anil. Check out the blog for the story.
Now I need something new to obsess about. I'm thinking it might be typography...
I love type. I think I feel about type the way hetmen feel about women. I don't understand it, am incredibly drawn to it, fascinated by it, can stare at lovely type for hours.... I download font after font only to choke when the time comes to use them, and I end up choosing Tahoma over and over again (no, I can't explain my weird Tahoma fetish) for print and Verdana online. I suppose it's time to look for a typography class.
Some recent type-sites I've been exploring
and netstar's freshfont
Lines & Splines http://www.linesandsplines.com/
And Chad writes:
"before I fall asleep, here is the beautiful weblog I promised:
and here are two great examinations of typography:
http://www.textism.com/writing/
http://www.textism.com/textfaces/ "
DESIGN MATTERS
tired of the 216 and need more colors? get more crayons
the return of psychedelia (via metafilter.com)
Hobo Signs (via giantant.com/antenna/)
The iconic language of the hobo
IA MATTERS
RE: Cory Doctorow. (via tomalak.org)
"The idea is that you have a folder on your desktop, you put some things in it you like, and it will fill up with things that you'll probably like. It figures out what you'll probably like by finding peers in the network who have taste similar to you and telling you what they think is good." dude!
BLOG OF THE DAY
In that "html chic" category of cool designs + lots of humorous little insights accompanying the links.
USABILITY MATTERS
Statistical Research: Pop-ups more noticeable and more annoying
"Internet users are far more likely to notice pop-up ads than banners,
but they are even more likely to be annoyed by the pop-up ads."
Business 2.0: Better Data Brings Better Sales. (via tomalak.org)
Jakob Nielsen. B-to-B sites often try to get away with approximate pricing, because of the assumption that the two companies will meet in person to negotiate. Even so, users still like detailed price information that discloses how much each feature or option will cost.
MARKETING MATTERS
Darwin Magazine: Do You Really Need a Customer Czar? (via tomalak.org)
"Some top execs can't imagine life without a CCO; skeptics contend that for many organizations, creating another seat at the boardroom table could very well be a recipe for disaster. Does your company need a CCO? Or is this a management fad you'll want to take a pass on?"
TECH MATTERS
prepackaged css layouts. via kirk (morecrayons.com)
BlueRobot's Layout Reservoir has some elegant examples of CSS layouts:
Glish.com has some cool layouts too:
As does the Noodle Incident:
Noodle is dropdead gorgeous, btw...
NEWS & COMMENTARY
Some of dot-com jobless having fun
"Valerie Hoecke, at age 28 already a weary veteran of the dot-com world, is now focusing her time and energy on something new: rock climbing." Go Val!
Spam vengeance feels oddly satisfying; a simple click costs spam software companies from a few pennies to a few dollars.
read article
CommerceNet: Most ecommerce firms outsource work
"Almost three-quarters of ecommerce-enabled companies are currently
outsourcing, or planning to outsource, parts of their work."
APROPOS OF NOTHING
thank god for geocities.
AND FINALLY
Adam of V-2 writes:
"Excellent, and I mean AMAZING, article in James Gleick's "Best American Science Writing 2000." It's not available online (believe me, I looked), but it's worth picking up the book for. (Anyway, the book also has a piece by *The Onion*, so you know you can't go wrong.)
The article in question is called "When Doctors Makes Mistakes," by Atul Gawande, and while it sounds like a FOX TV special, it is a compassionate and surprisingly deep inquiry into task and failure analysis where "failure" is literally a matter of life and death.
Gawande deals with "latent errors" built into systems which assume human infallibility, cascades of trivial errors in complex systems leading to systemic failure, critical-incident analysis, and the search for the elusive sixth sigma of quality.
It's not IA precisely, but just exactly 'cause it comes at IA-centric issues perpendicularly, it sheds some innaresting light on our concerns. It's fascinating to see, for example, how long it took relatively trivial human-factors insights to be accepted even in truly mission-critical areas like anesthesiology. And anesthesiology adopted these insights far ahead of the rest of the medical/surgical profession!
Anyway, I think it's worth a shout-out to your readers...
Plus, as you know, v-2.org has been nominated for a Chrysler Design Award, further information regarding which may be found at
http://www.chryslerdesignawards.com
I am of course near-mute with gratitude and amazement."
Congrats Adam!
OPENING THANG
Well, I don't know about you, but it has been a crazy week for me. Very busy at IQHQ. Which, in these tumultuous times is not something I'm going to complain about. I snuck in a couple of hours to get greymatter running for gleanings, and I think you'll like the results.
{{you are already here, so link removed}}
Also in a strange mood around 1 am I suddenly changed the look of the front page. If I could decide I liked it, I might propagate it through the site. But I'm puzzled-- I just broke my own process
DESIGN MATTERS
Interesting article about back-biting on ALA
Happily misspent some time downloading fonts from the lovely büro destruct . Be sure to check out the book pages.
A recent post on chi web set off a great exchange of sites with innovative
navigation (and unfortunately some rather snide commentary. everyone is so cranky
these days)
USABILITY MATTERS
Noel deconstructs an online bank on the CLog
and Peter attacks Style
NEWS
My sister (stylewithsubstance.com) sent me this article proclaiming the web is the best thing since sliced bread for small business.
Three e-business myths debunked
Dylan Tweney: Open secrets. (via tomalak.org)
These technical and market forces combine on the Internet to create an environment where information of the most private nature can quickly be disseminated worldwide, in seconds. In other words, "Information wants to be public."
and even if it doesn't want to be...
3 Charged With Giving Lucent Secrets to China
(Registration required.)
ebay is following Yahoo's lead in banning all hate-related memorabilia
Ebay to Ban All Hate-Related Items
"The online auction site extends its policy as it makes an aggressive
push into international markets."
read article
Razorfish Founders Quit Top Management Positions
"Mr. Maheu, who once oversaw North American operations and corporate development at Razorfish, called Mr. Dachis and Mr. Kanarick "industry pioneers and visionaries" and said the company's goal was to "return to profitable operations and positive cash flow while successfully serving the expectations of our clients, shareholders and employees."
read article
my commentary
http://www.eleganthack.com/blog/archives/00000038.html
Why I'll never use Blogger (via webword.com)
"For those unfamiliar with security, the FTP protocol transmits usernames and passwords in clear text modes which, means anyone on the Blogger network can easily sniff out a username and password to log into your webserver, plain and simple. I'm not saying anyone at Blogger would do so, at least I would hope not, but who's to say that someone won't compromise Blogger's network in the future? Are you willing to take that chance?"
read article
I've heard similar things about greymatter....
APROPOS OF NOTHING
I've decided I don't care if this is an urban legend or not.
"Oh my !!! Nice Kitty!!"
Put simply, Snowball is no ordinary cat, she measures 69 inches from nose to tail and weighs in at 87 lbs.
MORE...
From: Gleanings
To: thinkers
Subject: Gleanings: a buzzing bee....
OPENING THANG
been busy. very busy.
recent projects:
keeping http://www.carboniq.com/log entertaining (along with clever noel)
getting http://www.carboniq.com/events/cocktailhour/april live
making http://www.tracystroder.com for a friend's upcoming art show
Oh, and that billable work thing....
but I haven't forgotten you, dear gleanees. here is a nibble to keep you
going until I can emerge again...
IA MATTERS
Don Norman points to this as a potential innovation in navigation. Worth playing with, for sure.
http://www.primavera2001.org
~~~
Researching web sites - paul nattress
Describes a technique on researching your competitors web sites to help you design your own.
researching_web_sites_pn
~~~
Scents and sensibility (via giantant.com/antenna/)
IF WEBSITES are built without bricks or mortar, why does navigating around them so often feel like bashing your head against a wall?
and the original xerox parc scent study
~~~
big hairy pile of cog-psi papers, (via peterme.com). yum-o.
DESIGN MATTERS
Have you had your superbad today?
~~~
reboot
.threeoh.
USABILITY MATTERS
Internet World: Is Usability Really Worth Anything? (via tomalak.org)
Jakob Nielsen. Is usability really that bad for business? Basically, all
usability does is generate more sales, more traffic, and more loyal users. If
you lose money on every order you ship or every page view you serve, then
increasing the volume will indeed result in a flood of red ink.
~~~
IBM developerWorks: The usability world according to Tog.
"Effective interfaces are visually apparent and forgiving, instilling in their users a sense of control. Users quickly see the breadth of their options, grasp how to achieve their goals, and do their work."
"Effective interfaces do not concern the user with the inner workings of the system. Work is carefully and continuously saved, with full option for the user to undo any activity at any time."
"Effective applications and services perform a maximum of work, while requiring a minimum of information from users."
read article
~~~
New AskTog!
Is the Internet Really Collapsing?
"Fear is in the air. A lot of us have lost a lot of money in the past year. It seems like the downward spiral will never end, but it will, and then things are going to get a whole lot better. "
read article
NEWS & COMMENTARY
The Web Grows Up
A dip in Net surfing last December raises the question of whether the Web, like other media, is showing signs of seasonality.
read article
~~~
Napster Tones Down the Downloads
The number of songs traded on the service dips by more than a third during its first month of blocking copyrighted music, a report says.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/1,1902,24127,00.html?nl=met
I think it's true-- despite attempts at misspelling, I couldn't find a single live soul coughing song (I've bought all the albums, and I need more!!!)
APROPOS OF NOTHING
H4x0r Economist
(via captaincursor.com)
read article
~~~
Okay you have to be a web geek *and* a car geek *and* read a little french:
click several times on the car.
read article
From: Gleanings
To: flashaholics
Subject: Gleanings: I lied
OPENING THANG
Okay, I wasn't going to glean today, but it was link-mania yesterday: the universe was conspiring to share interesting stuff with me, and how could I not share back with you-all?
IA & DESIGN MATTERS
Human Factors International Articles
ones I'm excited to read include: Managing Your Defense Against GUI's from Hell, Pull Down Menus: Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Key Tips for User-Centered GUI Design and Icons: Much Ado about Something
~~~
Like to critique other people's work?
~~~
Information Architecture, an electronic web guide
"How many times have you gone to a web site looking for specific information and you weren't able to find it? Organizing informational content on a web site can be a very difficult and complicated endeavor, and most web developers lack the skills necessary to perform such tasks. Luckily, a new discipline is emerging in the web world that is tackling this very problem.It's called Information Architecture. "
~~~
How Architects Think
"The purpose of the experiment was to study the role and potential of mental
imagery in the architectural design process."
LEARNING MATTERS
Good site for learning the basics of web design and webmastering. Simple and friendly.
~~~
Barnes&Nobel University"It's FREE - join today! Enter an online classroom now and learn everything you wish they'd taught in school. Live instructors and students are online now! "
USABILITY MATTERS
The Non-Verbal Web
"In preparation for a class I'm teaching this quarter on Interface Design, I re-read Norman's The Design of Everyday Things (aka POET), which I am using as one of three pillars of the class.
I was struck (again) by the concept of perceived affordance. My communications background causes me to think of this as "the non-verbal language of objects" -- it's how I perceive the object's mode of interaction. Whether my perception matches the design reality will determine my satisfaction. "
~~~
Helping and Hindering User Involvement - A Tale of Everday Design
"This case study provides a detailed account of the obstacles and facilitators to user involvement that were identified during the design of a computer application. The factors that affected user involvement included contracting design services, selecting users, motivating users, facilitating and mediating meetings and offering points of focus for user contributions. "
~~~
Bad Human Factors Designs
"A scrapbook of illustrated examples of things that are hard to use because they do not follow human factors principles. "
my favorite
NEWS
Greenfield Online: Consumers don't want Net-enabled cars
"Consumers are far less interested in having email or music downloading
facilities in their cars than they are in having built-in systems to
deter thieves and sensors to alert them to hazards on the road."
~~~
IDG.net: Unproductive email like "being killed by friendly fire"
"While lawmakers and company bosses are increasingly concerned about
the levels of spam email, a new study says that unproductive internal
emails take up 30 percent of employees' time spent reading email."
~~~
Netcraft: Domain name registration slumps
"New data from Netcraft shows that there has been a dramatic reduction
in new domain name registrations."
~~~
SBC: DSL users just love their high-speed Net
Internet users with high-speed DSL connections at home say their DSL
link is an important household technology and would rather sacrifice
other media before they gave up their DSL.
~~~
MSNBC: Gadgets offering 'convergence' show whole can be less than sum of
parts. (via tomalak.org)
It is an old story that keeps getting retold. Bewitched by the promise of "convergence" -- the blending of communications, entertainment and computing -- and galvanized by the Internet, engineers and marketers are dreaming up a new class of high-tech Swiss Army knives.
~~~
Guru: Engineers Won't Design Next-Gen Systems
"It's not you guys" who will build equipment and systems that are easy to use, said Norman, of the Nielsen Norman consultancy. "You're the wrong people." Instead, future systems will be designed "by psychologists and social scientists working in combination with engineers and technologists," he said he predicted.
APROPOS OF NOTHING
why are we glad flash exists? today's apropos of nothing should prove the joy of the medium:
Kung-fu, stick figure style. it was just like the tavern scene in "crouching tiger, lousy title" except everyone is a stick figure.
this arrived with the subject heading"The latest demonstration of the power of the Internet..."
http://user.tninet.se/~prv247p/hatt/hatten.swf
and in that same category of "because we can, we will"
http://member.iquest.net/~derecho/pika.swf
I cannot recommend these two short flash works too highly. my jaw dropped onto the floor (esp.. the second) turn up the sound and enjoy.
~~~
kate points at the very goofy swedish fjallfil
she says "Have you run across www.fjallfil.com in your travels? It seemed timely in light of a recent chi-web discussion about drag-n-drop interfaces (but since I'm fairly new to the list I felt a wee bit shy about submitting such a very silly site). enjoy. "
no one should ever have anything against silly! (oh, and you can click over to English at the bottom)
From: Gleanings
To: Clickers
Subject: Gleanings: fair to partly bloggy.
OPENING THANG
A quiet weekend, and the few things I had to do got cancelled. What a pleasure. As well as long walks, a movie and a trip to the flea market, I wrote like crazy in the blog.
http://www.eleganthack.com/blog/index.html
As an experiment, this Gleanings is made up 97% of blogs. (it would have 100%, but I get interesting mail...)
DESIGN & IA MATTERS
Funny and engaging article on using flash well (xblog.com)
"My name is Squid Vicious and I'm a Flash-aholic."
http://www.zdnet.com/devhead/stories/articles/0,4413,2665825,00.html
A step-by-step guide to making icons (giantant.com/antenna/)
http://www.iconfactory.com/howto_home.aspfrom http://www.iconfactory.com/
Mini interview is with Bryan Boyer
http://www.kottke.org/
Usability rant on Jabber, from Matt Haughey (theobvious.com)
http://a.wholelottanothing.org/archived.blah/3/01/2001/#494
Some Thoughts on Design for Mobile/Wireless Devices (peterme.com)
http://www.peterme.com/
A List Apart (zeldman.com)
"Three web designers discuss trendiness and innovation in design, and list 15 sites that made a difference in the year 2000."
http://www.alistapart.com/stories/declination/
TECH MATTERS
Building the (New) Webmonkey Toolbar (captaincursor.com)
"So after years of procrastinating I finally wrote the documentation to the dropdown Webmonkey toolbar. Enjoy."
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/01/12/index1a.html
EMS (zeldman.com)
"A discussion at Little Green Footballs explains again why stylesheets that use ems, with the best intentions in the world, often produce web pages that are illegible for many readers."
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/weblog.php?y=1&x=archives/00000214.htm
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Mike, apparently living off a diet of cotton candy, has been in a happy place all week. Start on Monday the 16th, stop when you hit the naked lady.
http://www.biggerhand.com/
of maybe he just read this (camworld.com)
http://members.aol.com/maxxdaddy/mw3/weird.txt
this is where I leave blogs for my mail...
From the fucked company newsletter:
"I'll now be donating a large percentage of Fuckedcompany's unsold
inventory to non-profit organizations. That's non-profit BY CHOICE -- the
organization must have only charitable intentions."
http://www.fuckedcompany.com/
From George:
1040 for dot-com employees:
http://www.thoughtpolice.com/bayboyz/1040DotCom.gif
And thinking of the darkside of online dating... Be afraid, be very afraid.
http://www.psychoexgirlfriend.com/voicemails.html
I know there is a metaphor here, but why would I do that to a bunch of perfectly good lemons?
From: Gleanings
To: Lazyboys
Subject: Gleanings: It's friday, it's friday
OPENING THANG
It's Friday, which means gleanings is less relevant than ever! Because you would all rather watch quicktime movies and read modern humorist than learn about usability on a Friday, right? Well, I dig you, fellow babies! "Apropos of nothing" is chock full of meaningless goodies. Just scroll past these silly "work links" Oh-- after you watch jath, of course!
Part two of "how I met my husband" (TODAY ONLY!)
How to go from moron to babe: one word. motorcycle.
http://www.jath.com
DESIGN MATTERS
my latest favorite blog
http://www.emdezine.com/designwritings/index.shtml
Machine Beauty : Elegance and the Heart of Technology
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/046504316X/eleganthack
a visual language. sugar coated pictograms
http://www.khm.de/~timot/PageElephant.html
this site is a mess, but a pretty one. it will take over your screen, and launch about 50 windows and you need every plug-in known to man... still game?
http://www.typographic56.co.uk/
USABILITY MATTERS
The Church of Usability
"Who are these special individuals, the prophets of effective Web user-interface design? We sought out and interviewed six of these inspired souls, scribed their words, and made them Web." (Did I link to this already?)
http://builder.cnet.com/webbuilding/0-3881-8-5069140-1.html?tag=st.bl.3881-8-5069140-2.txt.3881-8-5069140-1
NEWS AND COMMENTARY
Engines Idling Roughly
"Less than half of all Web pages are indexed by search engines, but 6 out of 10 Web surfers spend one hour or more using them each week. "
http://www.thestandard.com/research/metrics/display/0,2799,22065,00.html
The Ethics of Opt-In
If you're considering an electronic direct-marketing campaign as an effective and inexpensive way to target potential customers, there are a few things you should know.
http://ecommerce.internet.com/solutions/ebusiness/article/0,1467,7651_716141,00.html
The Success of Online Advertising Lies Outside the Box
"The failure of banner ads to attract clicks has turned into an overdeveloped and unreasoned caterwaul against the entire online advertising revenue model. It is important to remember that advertising on the Internet is still a relatively new business model that should -- and will -- evolve. "
http://www.newmedia.com/nm-ie.asp?articleID=2569
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Noel look askance, I laughed till I wept, you be the judge..
just do NOT skip into.
http://www.cadaverinc.com/
cool 404
http://noahgrey.com/404.shtml
for the survivor fans (or nonfans who need a giggle too)
http://www.modernhumorist.com/mh/0103/reject/
or would you prefer humor about the journalism frenzy over dead dotcoms?
http://www.modernhumorist.com/mh/0103/cliche/
now this is just cool: be sure to go slowly and start with the single penny. jumping to the end just ruins the effect.
http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/default.asp(thanks matt!)
The Onion's Guide to Human Interaction
http://www.theonion.com/onion3301/cybercorner.html
Apple Employee Fired For Thinking Different
http://www.theonion.com/onion3507/thinking_different.html
A FINAL NOTE
btw, the dreamhost support team was fabulous and took care of all my technical difficulties. I still say dreamhost.com is number one.
From: Gleanings
To: people Watchers
Subject: Gleanings: My sky is falling
OPENING THANG
I'm on jath-- today and part two tomorrow. he doesn't archive, so if you want to see me look silly, go now.
http://www.jath.com
I'm having host problems. Parts of my site are falling off. I'm panicking and trying to torture the dreamhost support team (who are usually angels) by sending them mail every ten minutes. Please don't write me to tell me the sky is falling; believe me I know.
So: less links, but I promise they are all tasty.
BRAND MATTERS
Noel sends this
"With marketing dollars dwindling, who needs branding? 'Who doesn't?' ask the 'Got milk?' guys. And they've got a story to tell. "
which led to
"I'm With the Brand
Hey man, if you wanna succeed in the new economy, follow the Grateful Dead."
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,22850,00.html
and
"Marketing Muse: The New Brand You
When it comes to personal branding, Nike is trying to put its best foot forward with its new Nike iD program. But allowing individuals to influence a brand is a slippery proposition. "
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,22859,00.html
USABILITY MATTERS
This article is being discussed on the CHI-WEB list
http://clickz.com/article/cz.3589.html
On one hand, he doesn't seem to get that rules for one media do not necessarily apply to the next. on the other hand, are we forgetting the lost art of seduction?
NEWS & COMMENTARY
interesting article on data's odd transitory and permanent nature.
The Net Effect: Remembrance of Things Past
By Simson Garfinkel
http://www.techreview.com/magazine/apr01/garfinkel.asp
News.Com: Audrey's life cut short.
3Com on Wednesday said it will discontinue Audrey, its Web-surfing appliance
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-5207113.html
APROPOS OF NOTHING
"Exercises in Style was inspired by a work of the same name by the French writer Raymond Queneau. In that book, Queneau spun as many variations as he could--over 100--out of a mundane, two-part text about two chance encounters with a mildly irritating character during the course of a day. He started by telling it in every conceivable tense, then by doing it in free verse and as a sonnet, as a telegram, in pig Latin, as a series of exclamations, in an indifferent voice... you name it.
The goal of this project is to apply the same principle to comics by creating as many variations as possible on a simple one-page non-story: different points of view, different genres, different formal games, and so on."
If on a Winters Night a Traveler and The Mezzanine are both works of fiction in which the format and structure of the book is as important to the story as the compelling and wonderfully crafted fiction inside. Both a compelling read and an education on reinventing form.
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones : A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings (Shambhala Pocket Classics) Okay, ignoring the issue of "are IA's interested in Zen" I'd like to point out this small book is a model of great design through koans and through exercises... talk about tailoring an interface to different kinds of learning! Plus this edition is small enough for all pockets.
Understanding Comics I know few IA's who haven't read and dug this book... unsurprising once you realize this is an intriguing meditation on the visual presentation of information... er... stories. Tasty. The companion volume Reinventing Comics is a good exploration on taking comics to the next level --online-- while keeping their core nature intact.
Visit his site and read his chess piece.
From: Gleanings
To: gleanettes
Subject: Gleanings: Experience Design and glow-in-the-dark rabbits
IA & DESIGN MATTERS
User Experience and Interface Design Resources
from SIGIA
"For those of you interested in paper prototyping and evaluating with prototypes in general, you might find some useful tips in the following paper. Showing it's age a little bit (it came out a bit before the web hit town), but I've had good feedback on it's practical use as a how-to piece.
(zipped .pdf, 4.3 meg)
NEWS
from NUA
Harris Interactive: Online kids now spend up to USD164 billion
A new study has revealed that online US kids, teenagers, and young
adults aged 8 to 24 are now spending at a projected rate of USD164
billion per year.
more articles about the changing face of the web.
from tomalak:
ZDNN: AOL quietly linking AIM, ICQ.A person familiar with AOL's situation says the company is taking some steps
internally to make AIM and ICQ interoperable, but that it faces challenges
meshing the cultures of the two companies and also with the kind of users
signed onto each system.
NewMedia: Is Rich Media Worth It's Weight in Gold?
Software designers and Webmasters keep pushing forward like scouts in the wilderness, claiming new audio and visual landscapes as their own. As a result, the Web now is a swirl of color and movement, games, three-
dimensionality, and virtual worlds--it's a bastion of rich media. But there's a rub.
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Mutant Rabbit Raises Controversy Over Genetic Manipulation
Visit TheStandard.com and scroll down to "Homage" to read about my friend mike who makes usable cookies Then visit biggerhand.com to see what other mischief he gets into.
From: Gleanings
To: acolytes
Subject: Gleanings: Go Do that VooDoo than YooDoo so well
USABILITY MATTERS
How should a page load? What "feels" fast"?
Quality is in the eye of the beholder:
Meeting users' requirements for Internet Quality of Service
NEWS
When the Web Gets Too Personal... and How to Stop It
Who needs a Napster fix?
Napster Fires New Salvo in Legal Battle With RIAA (Reuters)
Napster Case Makes Strange Bedfellows
EVENTS
EYECANDY
Art Center College of Design
APROPOS OF NOTHING
sending some voodoo your way:
From: Gleanings
To: glean feelings
Subject: Gleanings: Feeling chatty this morning
USABILITY MATTERS and Christina rambles.
Mark Hurst reviewed Dr. Marten's site and gave them a pretty harsh review.
I wonder though:
is he wrong, and the Dr. Marten's is hitting squarely their current demographic, just as they do with electric blue or sequined boots (anyone else here old enough to remember when we were 'appropriating" working man boots?)
or
is Doc martens wrong... or rather, limited in thinking of the net as a flavor of television, in which peoples level of entertainment by a commercial equals their positive brand associations and thus sales.
levis has recently come under this same kind of criticism, and I think it's an important question.
what do you think? tell me, and I'll pass it on
Mark Hurst was recently interviewed by Lou Rosenfeld (heretoafter perpetually referred to as "Lou"). Mark looks 12.... and takes the Jakob Nielson "wrong headed but loud so people will listen, think and react" approach. But is always a good read.
Another site review and all I can say looking at Bose is "this is a best practice?" sheesh.
GENERAL NEWS
Internet Workforce Compensation Study 2000
by Industry Standard Staff
The Standard's first-ever review of compensation, culture and job satisfaction in the Internet workplace.
and a bunch more from tomalak, as usual.
Salon: When Big Brother knows you watch "Big Brother".
Q&A with Mike Ramsay, CEO of TiVo. We're looking at interactive ads; we're
putting ads and promotions on the disk as it goes out the door. We've got the
ability to make ads more flexible so that if you're watching an ad and you're
interested, you can hit select and it will take you to an infomercial.
Boston Globe: Bulb business.
The company's voice mail system touts it cheerily as ''the Web's number one
light bulb superstore.'' But does the Web need a number one light bulb
superstore, any more than it needs a number one paper clip store or a number
one toilet plunger store?
Business Week: Bad Timing for Swatch's Web Watch.
A Swatch spokeswoman now says the Internet Swatch has been put on hold because
of "technical questions." The company isn't elaborating, but judging from a
prototype unveiled earlier this year, the Web watch was so flawed that it may
never be put on the market.
CODE
Add helper rollovers to your links
APROPOS OF NOTHING
From: Gleanings
To: listeners
Subject: Gleanings: folded and unfolding
It's a foggy Monday in San Francisco, so I thought I'd start the day off with some humor
How people forwarded jokes before there was email.
and of course, we will all get this t-shirt
USABILITY MATTERS
it's an old song, but as dsl, cable modems and the like get more attention, we need to remember that most of America isn't there yet.
InfoWorld: The speed of business: If your pages are slow, your customers will
go.I understand the difference between Web-and host-based systems, but the
difference between 2 and 8 seconds is far too much. Our expectations appear to be heading in the wrong direction. I'm also certain we didn't become more
patient over the years.
Useit.Com: From March 1, 1997; The Need for Speed
IA MATTERS
I know it may sound odd, but I believe IA's should try folding origami from diagrams. the act of using a diagram to create a 3d object is both satisfying, relaxing and makes you consider what it takes to write halfway decent instructions. I'm sure there are other hobbies that would produce the same set of feelings and skills (model airplanes? knitting) but origami is my choice.
Of particular interest here is the "Phone Folding" --text only instructions.
My favorite of the origami sites
GENERAL NEWS
eCompany: A New Way to Keep Score on the Web.
At IRI, they gave 50,000 pen scanners to a panel of consumers to keep track of all their purchases -- an expensive proposition. Now, on the Web, they've
attracted 1.3 million surfers who willingly allow ComScore to stalk them
online and record every click.
the new star wars trailer is a hoax? (and yes, I'm a bit behind on this one. if you want your news pre-masticated, you'll have to live with it)
anyhow, if you wanted to waste your whole day watching fanfilms, check this out
Forbes: MongoMusic Fans Include Microsoft.
People like to think their tastes are quirky and unique, and Hinman doesn't
disagree. He just believes he's found a way to predict their music likes and
dislikes--down to the chord, even--using a database of songs and a patent-
pending computer program.
more on music and the napster influence
From: Gleanings
To: Sleep is for the Smart
Subject: Gleanings: refreshed and refreshing
Hey kids...
after a grueling working week I'm back. I'll never use the phrase "sleep is for the weak" again... sleep good.
Idle information....3% of my visitors have no JavaScript. They either turn it off or don't have JavaScript enabled browser. Wonder which it is.
I also have a higher than industry standard number of Mac and Netscape users
I get 28% Netscape and 20% Mac... compared to the web-wide numbers of 13.5% for Netscape and 3.5% Mac. Just goes to show you, nothing is more valuable than designing for *your* users. Anyone have an old Mac to donate so I can browser test?
(BTW I use http://www.TheCounter.com/ for my stats rather than digging through my logs)
okay, enough about me.. here are your URL's.....
USABILITY MATTERS
do not forget the alt tags!!!!!!! or it may cost you.
Still more reasons to remember alt tags, including being found by search engines.
evil bureaucracies?
Useit.Com: Regulatory Usability.
Regulatory requirements often reduce the usability of Web content and end up
damaging the exact goals they were trying to promote. Regulatory agencies
usually base their rules and regulations on design criteria that are
appropriate for paper-based documents but which don't work in the online
medium.
more Jakob
CIO WebBusiness: From February 1, 1999; Jakob Nielsen on Dinosaurs
DESIGN MATTERS
Death of the Websafe Color Palette?
good old webmonkey discoverers there are really only 22 websafe colors. hope you like green.
OTHER MATTERS
interview with author of cluetrain manifesto
NEWS
Business Week: So Who Wants to Surf the Tube Anyway?
Q&A with Lutz Erbring, professor at the Free University of Berlin. The
technology is there to combine the devices. But nothing that we've [seen]
suggests that people want to mix those activities. When they're watching TV,
they want to relax. They don't want to do any research.
NY Times: Trademarks Winning Domain Fights.
At the heart of Icann's domain name arbitration system is the Uniform Dispute
Resolution Policy, a set of rules that provide the litmus tests for
determining if a domain name holder is acting in bad faith or is out to hijack
a trademarked name.
Industry Standard: Yahoo "Ads" It Up.
Anheuser Busch might know that millions of dollars spent on ads that feature
talking frogs will lead to hundreds of millions in beer sales. But the
intuitive logic of advertising seems like a stretch to Wall Street, especially
with investors leery of Internet stocks.
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Splendid Maya Palace Is Found Hidden in Jungle
Dieting Lowers IQ of British Girls
One in four schoolgirls are damaging their IQs by dieting and depriving themselves of iron. British researchers found a highly significant difference in IQ between schoolgirls with the lowest levels of iron in their blood and those girls with adequate iron levels.
From: Gleanings
To: bored stiffs
Subject: Gleanings: lame but here
Today was the all time record slow news day. Luckily I found the Journal of Conceptual Modeling... that should keep the IA's on the list busy. The rest of you can bake pie.
IA MATTERS
the journal of conceptual modeling
NEWS
Gnutella, Napster ... What's the Difference?
APROPOS OF NOTHING
ecards that didn't make the cut
(may have racy content and porn ads)
* SURVIVAL EXPOSED!
Nine nutbags try to survive in paradise. An AtomFilms original.
How to make an apple tart, French style. easy and tasty.
250g flour
1g egg
80g sugar
125g butter
pinch salt
break egg into mixing bowl, add sugar and salt, mix vigorously with a fork or whisk until white (but not foamy) then progressively add flour. when spoon doesn't work, use hands to mix. when all flour is all there, crumble with your hands until mixture is like coarse sand (make sure all large chunks are well broken up into a fine mixture).
cut butter into small pieces,then add to mixture. work into a homogenous mixture.
rest one hour in the refrigerator
take out, then work a little to soften, and then roll out and line shallow tart dish (9 in).
peel apples (tart-tasting. Jonathan, roma but never red delicious--about 5) and quarter, removing core. slice each quarter in half, then half again, making thin slices. layer these slices in a circular spiral pattern. Sprinkle lightly with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
bake for about 30 minutes at about 400 When apples are soft and crust is nice and brown, it's probably done.
From: Gleanings
To: faithful listeners
Subject: Gleanings: Other People's Gleans 2
IA MATTERS
from Andi:
globalization UI issues
interview with every IA's favorite comic artist, Scott McCloud
EVENT
Conference from Creative Good (Mark Hurst) in San Francisco.
NEWS
from Muffy:
I see London, I see Uranus
from Tracy:
wap
from Vic:
what do you get when you cross a goat with a spider?
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Sixteen-year-old high school sophomore Becky Atherton, believed
to be the last remaining American who did not hate Microsoft,
announced today that she was "tired of being different" and would
now hate Microsoft just like everyone else.
LINK-O-RAMA
On CHI-WEB a call was put out for favorite CHI and web design resources here it is (it's a bit short, but that makes it manageable for this list)
http://argus-acia.com/index.html
http://Flazoom.com
http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/
http://is.twi.tudelft.nl/hci/
http://stc.org/pics/idsig/
http://usableweb.com/
http://websitesthatsuck.com/index.html
http://websitesthatwork.iab.com
http://wsupsy.psy.twsu.edu/surl/
http://www.acm.org/
http://www.acm.org/dl/proc_bysig_list.html#SIGCHI
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/hci-sites/
http://www.alistapart.com
http://www.asis.org/
http://www.asktog.com
http://www.baychi.org/
http://www.bogieland.com/infodesign/
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/~cspgpjw/hci.html
http://www.contenu.nu/200006.html#usabilityislikelove
http://www.contenu.nu/resources.html
http://www.electricseed.com/joeclark/usability.html
http://www.foruse.com
http://www.goodexperience.com
http://www.hcibib.org/
http://www.hcirn.com/
http://www.ida.liu.se/labs/aslab/groups/um/hci/
http://www.info-architects.net/
http://www.jnd.org
http://www.lynda.com/
http://www.sandia.gov/itg/index.html
http://www.system-concepts.com
http://www.uidesign.net
http://www.uie.com
http://www.usableweb.com
http://www.useit.com
http://www.webmonkey.com
http://www.webreview.com
From: Gleanings
To: read-herrings
Subject: Gleanings: for girls with glasses and men who make passes
IA MATTERS
read these books.
and one from biggerhand.com
"because sometimes it's good to remember that things should be fun.
and that fun and usability are NOT polar opposites."
NEWS
j*sus f*cking chr*st. what the h*ll is happening in our society?
from tomalak:
SJ Mercury: Online companies violate our privacy because we let them.
Dan Gillmor. They lobby for what's hilariously called self-regulation, and
create utterly toothless privacy-watchdog organizations that barely even bark
at the worst violations. We are not people to these businesses. We are data,
and we are fair game.
Xerox PARC: Free Riding on Gnutella
APROPOS OF NOTHING
this will make you happy, esp if you are from the midwest
http://web.0sil8.com/
FEEDBACK:
a friend writes regarding http://www.usps.gov/stories/spw :
"Wow... I'm speechless.
Okay, new web phenom here? This is the second time this week I've looked at a Flash cartoon that went on so long that I just closed out the window & gave up - it would be nice if people would start giving some indication of the LENGTH of these things instead of just leaving you at the mercy of their Flash movie."
From: Gleanings
To: glean-team
Subject: Gleanings:less real but more fun
APROPOS OF NOTHING
I am in love with this site. With its well thought out icons, strange
photodisk testimonials and clever personalization and stickiness ploys it is more successful as a fake site than many real e.coms.
Goodwill. Globally.
more on fake websites
NY Times: Wacky, Fake Web Sites Grab Attention.
The trend is meant to capitalize on the growing use of and fascination with
the Internet as well as to take advantage of the capabilities of the Web to
produce content at a low cost that appears to be genuine. In other words, on
the World Wide Web, it can always be April Fool's Day.
this has to be seen to be believed.
super postal worker.
EYECANDY
(flashcandy)
http://www.graffiti.org/figm/index2.htm
http://www.lorenhaynes.com/
I quite like the design and navigation of this webshop.
http://www.entercomm.com/
NEWS
domain squatters are starting to lose...
Yahoo! Wins 40 Domain Names (AP)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/446029.asp
from Tomalak
Salon: Don't call us.
In five years writing about the Net, I've seen a lot of ridiculous endeavors -- like publicists who fax over press releases and then request that, if you don't plan to write about "Making Merry with Shari's Berries!" you fax back an explanation of why you passed on that hot story tip.
from webmonkey
Friday, 18 August 2000
Levi's and Phillips have banded together to create the first commercially available line of e-clothing! They're starting out with jackets that come with built-in MP3 players and cellphones, and cost between $600 and $900 (so reasonable!). Some people are concerned about the possible health risks of having so much technology constantly radiating your body, but I just want to know what the coats look like. I mean, unless they're really cute, you probably won't wear them enough to worry about anything but the wrath of the fashion police, right?
Read all about it at Wired News
and more
Industry Standard: Hello, And Welcome to Our Redesign!
Q&A with Alex Weil, designer at Charlex. What I tried to do was raise the
quality of the Web site to match the brand and culture it created through
the phone. The first thing we did was add its well-known slogan to the top of
the Web site. "Hello, and welcome to Moviefone!" can also be downloaded as an
audio file.
Adweek: From July 3, 2000; Sneak Previews
From: Gleanings
To: they might be gleanings
Subject: Gleanings: now with less content!
EYECANDY
limn.com has been a nightmare for users.. this is half apology, but mostly
something very different.
turn on your speakers: their background music is by they might be giants.
APROPOS OF NOTHING
NEWS
Cellphone are for people communicating with people, not Proctor and gamble or the NBA...
from tomaak:
SJ Mercury: Forget the hype, e-books still hard on the eyes.
E-book technology is just not ready. It's too hard to read on the screen.
Think of this as the opposite of what's going on with the music industry and
Napster: With Napster, the public is clamoring for file-sharing technology but
the big companies are trying to ignore it.
In their dreams
Sony claims to be an Internet company. It isnt yet
Finally, someone comes up with a radical new conceptual model
hacker or careless employee? Tonight the PhotoWorks home page had a guitar playing dinosaur instead of their "step 2" on the homepage.
Followed a link from the redoubtable victor lombardi, and it lead to the fine home of the Gallery of Regrettable food which I reviewed in my first web job ever in... er... a while ago. (where did I leave my memory pills?) 1996? Anyhow, nice to see it's alive and thriving. Check it out, it's a good source of giggles.
I want to first point out that this has nothing to do with IA.
So You've Decided to be Evil
Refound 50 cups of coffee | swoosh no more. One of life's little pleasures is rediscovering a URL you thought you'd lost. Here a brave soul collects every logo featuring a swoosh. It's rather disturbing how many there are
I love boxes. Especially paper boxes. When I found this "issue" of K10k I was so happy.
I would have enjoyed it for the playful navigation alone, but the satirical design-y faux ads made it a triple pleasure. I just wish my printer was behaving so I could print out and build my box.
A find!
