The L.A. Times shows us how easy it is to publish an article with extreme bias. [Note the author's affiliation at the bottom.] Peter Merholz points out that a bias should be expected because this is written on the newspaper's opinion page. Peter's right. Several other readers have mentioned that a lot of the facts in this article are wrong and that any self-respecting newspaper would have checked them prior to publication.
The Web Bug FAQ.
Tara Calishain sent me this link to anti-leech.com.
I'm very disappointed in NewMedia.com's new site design. While it's a wonderful example of what DHTML can do, it's also an excellent example of how far we have to go before cross-browser DTHML GUIs are acceptable. The little scroll arrows fail to work completely in Netscape/Mac 4.7. I'm guessing a pretty good chunk of their audience still uses Netscape on a Macintosh. The site also loads very slowly on a fast connection. I cringe to think of what this is like over a modem. Maybe they'll change it back after they see a sudden drop in their traffic. Apparently, the site doesn't work in IE/Mac either.
More on NewMedia.com: Their site (and their magazine) has always been about delivering great content for the new media development industry in an aesthetically-pleasing and no-nonsense format. I'm afraid their technology director or art director has become the latest victim to fall in love in with the technology (DHTML, etc.) and completely forget about their readers. This happens so often, I'm surprised no one hasn't coined a term for it yet. I wouldn't be so disappointed about their new site design if I could still get the print version of their magazine or if I could actually link to their content (and send them new readers). But the way they've implemented their new site deters me from visiting their site. It's not that I don't want to visit - I do. It's just that they're making it awfully hard for me to check in regularly. They've broken [one of] the cardinal rule[s] of web design: pervasive accessibility. Sigh...
Even more on NewMedia.com: I mean, if their goal was to deliver their content in a format and GUI that was tailored for Internet-enabled kiosks, then their new site would be a huge success. Their goal though, is to educate and inform new media developers. Despite what some people think, not everybody in the new media development field has an operating system/browser combo that can handle the technological complexity of the new design of NewMedia.com. As a content-oriented site, NewMedia.com has failed their secondary goal as well: to serve their content to the largest audience possible - something that cannnot be done if you decide to use a non-standard technology. In this instance, we're talking about DHTML or the combination of HTML 4.0 and Javascript. This is a direct result of the poor implementation of DHTML in the mainstream 4.x browsers (both Communicator and IE). Perhaps this is just another case of a design/development team "using technology for technology's sake" or perhaps the NewMedia.com team has strayed down the path that will lead to their extinction. From my perspective, they have failed in providing me with the content I want and need (which is their primary directive).
Receipts! [via Bradlands]
I just saw the local news do a really bad bit on "browser privacy." I'm always amazed at how clueless the mainstream press is about computers and technology. It's even worse when they try to explain what cookies are, or how to turn them off. I credit them for dumbing everything down for the technology-ignorant, but when they get even the most basic things wrong (cookies do not "control your privacy" in browsers), it's frustrating. It reminds me of friends of mine who refuse to read USA Today because it's written at a third-grade reading level. Ooh, pretty colors.
I'm starting to think more about the upcoming Presidential race here in the U.S. There are a few things that stick out in my mind about some of the potential candicates. John McCain, the war hero, knows what it's like to serve his country. Being a POW for all that time has to have solidified his vision for America. Bill Bradley, the basketball star, knows what it's like to work hard towards something and be rewarded for it. Imagine the hundreds of hours of practice and the dedication he must have had to become the superior basketball player he was. And then there's Bush, the silver spoon. For his entire life, he's been given everything he's ever wanted. Having a famous father (and former President) with the same name seems to be working for him. Is our country stupid enough to vote this guy into office based on name recognition? The guy is an idiot. It's time for our country to wake up and vote in somebody with integrity, somebody with good faith, and somebody who we can stand behind as the President of our country. I hope and pray that person doesn't end up being G. W. Bush.
I just saw this quote on Slashdot: "Don't marvel at how credit cards stick to magnets." Heh, heh...
Where's my brain? I had today's date listed as a Monday. Lots of links today, folks!
The W3C has approved XHTML 1.0. [Finally!]
Whoops! It's nice to see lawyers screw up every once in a while.
Ah! What's happened to Maura? And here, too?
"An Open Letter to Geoworks" is an attempt to shed some light on the controversial decision by Geoworks to enforce their "intellectual property rights" regarding the WAP protocol for wireless data transmission.
Dynamic Diagrams: Mapping Web Sites. [from evolt.org]
Jef Raskin: There is No Such Thing as Information Design.
Fascinating speculation about Apple entering the network computer industry using MacOS 9 and some of their new iTools features. [via My Dog]
Regarding the recent uproar about Doubleclick invading our lives and our privacy, I have no comment. If it happens, it happens. People in the know are saying that you should configure your browser to not acccept cookies, except that disables the majority of the ecommerce sites I visit regularly. What to do, what to do? And then I thought, what if somebody wrote a bookmarklet that toggled this preference? Drop that bookmarklet into your browser's toolbar, and you're a simple click away from controlling your privacy. Can it be done?
A List Apart: Being Jakob Nielsen, The Story of the Blue and the Green.
Yahoo: Yahoo Parodies.
Awesome article called "Technology We Hate" about technology in our lives. (I'm terrified that any Microsoft software will eventually be in our car dashboards.) I think Java might be a better choice for "digital dashboards."
I knew it! Emode's Celebrity Matchmaker matched me up with Jennifer Aniston. I can remember her pre-Friends days when she was a struggling young actor in a short-lived sketch comedy show called "The Edge."
Phil, the Security Guard. I wonder if he knows Gary Coleman. [via FootPrints]
Download the MP3 "Bill Gates Must Die." Also read the letter at the bottom of this page. [via Apathy]
Build-a-cow! [via Vaccuum]
Jason Kottke has accomplished the impossible: unshrinking a shrunken wool sweater.
Salon: Taste-testing Aqua.
From Neale Talbot's site comes some links about copyright laws and parody:
Malkovich!
WebTV: Displaying Television Broadcasts in Web Pages. [via General Eyes]
Jason Fried sent me this link which grossed me out. Read carefully, then scroll up.
Japanglish. [via David Chess log]
A fascinating article by Mike Kuniavsky about the lack of good GUIs in open source software. [via Hack-the-Planet]
ClickZ: Top 10 Things I Hate About the Web Business. Number 8 is the best.
Outpost.com has been having trouble with keeping their customer data secure. It looks to me like this is a direct result of them choosing a poorly-architected content management system, in this case Broadvision.
UIDesign.net: WML or XML? Choosing the right technology for wireless content aggregation.
A List Apart: Where Have All the Web Designers Gone?
Dear Marketer, Please take me off your lists, Thank You. Lots of links to opt-out pages at numerous companies and ecommerce players.
50 Reasons Why "Return of the Jedi" Sucks.
Copyright Infringement in Cyberspace: Untangling the Web With Existing Law
H.R.2281: Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The First Amendment Handbook: How To Avoid Copyright Infringement. [From a journalistic perspective.]
Apple: A Copyright Primer for Multimedia Developers.
Some observations on copyright law.
An example of a good parody. [via MetaFilter]
A cool random domain name generator. Reload the page to generate more.
This story is a downright classic. Ingenious, even. [Obscure Store]
How'd I miss this Wired story about "extreme candy" from June, 1999. Growing up overseas, I missed out on all of the unique American candy that my peers had access to. I remember coming back to the States in 1986 when I was 13 years old and being amazed at how much choice there was.
Lance has lots of random domain name generation tools. [Submitted via Derek Powazek.]
From the Archives: Available .com domain names.
Dack Ragus has a list of sleeper films from the 90's. I would add "Fear, Anxiety, and Depression" to that list except that it wasn't that good [quirky independent film] and it was made in 1989. A movie I would add that is really good is "Caught."
Charge it to Jesus. [Submitted anonymously.]
It's hard to tell if this is a parody, or blatant theft and copyright infringement of Jakob Nielsen's UseIt.com site. Or maybe it's a cry for help from someone who feels he needs to pull a stunt like this to draw attention to his site. Yeah, I bet that's it. [If you're attempting a parody, then it's usually considered polite to label it as a parody. Failure to do will result in people thinking you've stolen somebody else's work.]
It was really hard to get that chainsaw through the security checkpoint at Detroit Metro.
The more I think about it, the more I think Neale is doing these stupid/silly stunts simply to get attention. If that's his motive, he's succeeded. It's like in high school when the social outcasts dress in strange and funky ways simply to be noticed. Please tell me the web isn't turning into another big popularity contest. I had enough of that crap in high school.
Apologies in advance for the slight change in focus here at CamWorld. The next few weeks will likely result in fewer postings, as I'm gearing up for a move from Michigan to New York City. Once I get settled into my new job and new home, CamWorld will return back to normal.
Some of the web circles have been abuzz with the story of how the founder of Unamerican Activities threw his business partner's kitten through a window, which led to its death. Here's the other side of the story.
CamWorld Submission: "This is so stupid, it's funny." [Submitted anonymously.]
AOL 5.0 is being called "The Upgrade of Death." Apparently, it interferes with software and Internet connectivity from AOL competitors. So, if Microsoft is set to be broken up by the DOJ, then what's stopping AOL from stepping into Microsoft's shoes?
Don Norman summarizes the problem(s) and solutions(s) with font sizes, CSS and pixels vs. points, and pulls together a bunch of URLs on the subject. [A must-read.]
Last year when TV Guide purchased the Prevue Channel, I remember thinking that it was going to take a turn for the worse in terms of readability. And I was right. Within a matter of months, they changed the design of the scrolling guide on the bottom half of the screen from a nicely-formatted and very readable blue and white grid with white text to this awful multi-colored grid with rounded squares set in each data cell. This was around January 1st that I noticed the change. Apparently, I wasn't the only person to notice the decrease in readability/scanning, as they've now reverted back to the old grid design and layout. [It would be great if someone had pictures of what I'm talking about.]
Industry Standard: Industry notables ponder the future of the Internet.
Research Goddess Tara Calishain found the housing development that shares my name. [Cool!]
The most interesting part of this story is the last sentence.
After Dave Letterman told Howard Stern he couldn't guest host for him while he recovers from his heart surgery, Stern featured a Letterman impersonator on his show which caused the braindead media to think that it was the real Letterman. Now Stern is threatening to boycott Letterman because of an argument with Letterman's producer. Sounds to me like Stern is a big fat whiner. Boo-hoo. [via Obscure Store]
www.howardstern.com. [Huh?]
eBay Crap: Remote-controlled fart machine.
Excellent Richard Brandt article on breaking the rules in the ecommerce arena. And don't forget last week's article on usability within technology and bloatware.
You too can own a Pets.com sock puppet t-shirt. Their slogan "Visit Pets.com, because pets can't drive" reminds me of the old SNL skit Toonces the Driving Cat.
Cat Travel, Inc.
Superb Good Experience today.
Hey, they named a creek after me. [Who can find out what this domain is for?]
What to charge for a logo design.
Found at PeterMe: Understanding "Understanding Comics". You must have read "Understanding Comics" or be a comic book nut for this article to make any sense.
The 1999 winners for The Well's Writing Awards have been announced.
MisterRidiculous: "All my coworkers had an agenda. One made chapbooks of his poetry. One ran a small record label and would make all the covers and catalogs for his label. A couple were students and used working at Kinko's to have access to computers. One just made really strange Xerox art (one night I helped him attempt to feed a Taco-Bell tortilla through a copier to print on it and we were nearly successful)."
Sturdy and durable notebooks for police officers, detectives, and lawyers.
Zeldman: If the Great Movies Had Been Web Sites.
The Village Voice has reprinted an excellent article from 1993 about the death of a millionaire during a "legal" marijuana raid on his home.
Oh yeah, almost forgot about the total lunar eclipse tomorrow night.
Vent baby, vent. Unbridled music angst at its best. I love the descriptions: "Kid Rock: White rap for assholes. Vanilla Ice with Tourrette's."
The ibutton is an interesting concept in wearable and portable computing. Expect technologies like these to grow very fast within the next 2-3 years.
Fascinating study of the recent credit card hacker fraud ring we've been hearing about in the news.
Microsoft goes bowling. [via Scripting News]
The guy who was paid $500 from Microsoft for paying the $35 Network Solutions renewal fee for passport.com on Christmas Day is selling the check on eBay, all proceeds to go to charity.
Another review of the MacOS X GUI. [Again from TechnoWeenie]
The T-Shirt Chronicles.
He's either a very, very, stupid, man or simply insane. [Found at Cardhouse.]
Long-time Mac users will remember most of these games.
Origin of a Browser. This is an astonishing compilation of browser history. [Bookmark this one.]
Javelink.com Another page-watching service, much like SpyOnIt.com.
I've never even heard of this magazine called Competia but it looks like it has some good content.
A superb article in Salon that talks about the future of the Internet, as controlled by AOL/Time-Warner.
Bruce Tognazzini, a well-respected GUI designer, has an in-depth review of the new MacOS X interface that was shown at the recent MacWorld Expo.
Kathy Gill vents about the link-rot that is caused when a site moves from static to database-driven pages.
I just learned about a program called WindowBlinds that allows you to customize the window GUI for Win98. This is the same concept of "skinning" I referenced last week. Someone has already developed an Aqua skin based on Apple's new MacOS X GUI. [via TechnoWeenie]
How'd I miss this Intro to HDML article on HotWired? Good stuff. This [wireless PDA] is going to be a huge market, folks.
No updates for a few days. I'm traveling again, this time back to NYC.
Today's entry in Good Experience is a downright classic.
If you're using Netscape on a Mac, read and implement these tips. The difference in speed/rendering is simply astonishing.
You know that Kellogg's TV commercial with the guy who collects uniquely shaped Frosted Flakes cereal flakes? Right towards the end of the commercial, Tony the Tiger rides a bike past the window in the background of the shot. I wonder if we're going to start seeing more "Easter eggs" like this show up in mainstream advertising? [Several readers noted that Tony riding a bicycle appears in almost every Frosted Flakes commercial.]
Ben sent me this link to a site that catalogs Easter eggs in software, movies, TV, and book.
Universal service used to mean that everybody had access to a telephone in case of emergencies. Now some FCC staffers think that everyone's entitled to a high-speed Internet connection. In a few years, communications companies may owe everyone a cheap Palm Pilot.
Buy.com has redesigned. It looks like the tab navigation concept is here to stay. First it was the C|Net yellow sidebar (circa 1996-1997) navigation that took over the web, now it's tabs. And I see they've abandoned people using 640x480 monitors and WebTV users. Their Customer Service center is a javascript pop-up site that only barely works. If I were a customer having trouble with their site and I wanted to contact them, do you think I'd be comfortable using such a convoluted Customer Service web site?
I see that Outpost.com has also redesigned since I last visited. When you go to www.outpost.com, it immediately redirects you to a BroadVision URL that contains session management. This renders your browser's back button useless. For instance, if you wanted to go to the site you were at immediately before visiting Outpost.com, you would not be able to do so because of the way they've implemented their session management.
Rob Krieger from ICE has written a superb piece called Interface Engineering that approaches GUI design and usability from a software point-of-view. Web designers can learn a lot from seasoned veterans of software GUI design. Don't stop there, though. There's a whole boatload of useful info in ICE's site.
John Halcyon Styn from Prehensile.com sent in his own link about bad banner advertising. Funny stuff.
When I'm ready to shave my head, I'm going to do it with style. [Now that's a great example of a niche market.]
The pets.com commercial where the hand puppet tries to bribe the tabby cat to let him in the building. Hilarious.
I don't know what's more interesting. That Earthlink's new TV commercial is featuring the Hampsterdance, or that the computer shown is clearly running the MacOS.
Jeff Veen has a new opinion piece up at HotWired about deceptive banner advertising. I fall for this trick all the time, as I'm sure many others do as well. Jeff makes some good points. This is why I prefer businesses whose revenue models are not based on advertising, but rather a per-click information retrieval/distribution model. This is what sets apart companies like LinkExchange and iSyndicate.
Hmmm, interesting...
Faisal Jawdat sent me this link to a piece of Ask Tog's reader mail discussing font readability in computer displays.
Another reader pointed me towards a Microsoft page that describes a problem with various Microsoft software regarding font rendering in web pages.
And Microsoft has an entire page dedicated to the Verdana font. Lots of readers are also telling me that Georgia is another very readable font for online reading and retention.
Users of WinAmp and MacAmp are probably aware of the many "skins" that are available for that software. This allows anyone who wants, to design their own user interface (a "skin") and stick it on top of the basic underlying application. Proponents of Mozilla 5 are likely aware of a similar feature being considered. Neoplanet does this same thing with Internet Explorer.
David Boswell sent me this link to a discussion about Mozilla skins and XUL.
Here is the beginnings of an IE skin for Mozilla.
Argh. I haven't done this test in about 7-8 years, but I got sucked in by some of the other webloggers. I scored as an iNFp.
DotComGuy, meet NotComGuy.
Bibleman! [via MrPants.]
Heh heh. That's a pretty steep decline, eh?
No really, I'm alive. You can stop sending me email asking if I dropped off the face of the earth. Although the red-eye flight I caught Saturday night from Las Vegas to Detroit was so full the pilot couldn't get the plane to cruise at its normal 37,000-foot altitude. I tell you what, though - America West needs to retire some of these aging Boeing 737s they're flying. Giant flying metal tubes of falling-apart airplane guts - that's how I think of them.
New issue of Reflections of a Modem Junkie is out.
I got a chance to look at IE 5.0 for the Mac at a MacWorld Microsoft party I attended on Friday night. Overall, I think it's a vast improvement over version 4.5 and appears to be rather stable. The interface is cleaned up quite a bit, and allows the end user to choose a default color scheme for the browser chrome, with the colors echoing the iMac flavors. I asked if they were building in a skins feature like Mozilla 5 is going to have, and they said no and gave some lame excuse. From an observer's point of view, IE 5.0/Mac looks pretty good, but I'll only be able to give it a fair review after I've tested a wide array of web sites with it. [Early reports tell me that the rendering engine still has some problems.]
Somebody with a DVD player setup, a copy of The Matrix, too much time on their hands, and a 13-year old's sense of humor (or lack of).
A very long and excellent article on "physical genius." [Found at rc3.org]
Flipping around the TV last night I stumbled across a jerky little movie from 1996 called "Ed's Next Move." While it's not a great film, it is a remarkable retrospective on the "nice guy" factor when it comes to today's society and dating.
While everyone agrees that Charles Shulz created a wonderful comic strip with Peanuts, here's a bit of a cynical look at Snoopy and the gang.
I'm still catching up on the news of the past week or so. Slashdot interviewed Steve Wozniak!
Note: I'm tweaking the HTML template CamWorld uses. If something starts rendering funny, particularly in the calendar area, please email me a screenshot and tell me what your browser/OS setup is. Thanks.
Lots of readers wrote in thanking me for the Verdana font tip. Whether or not it helps your online reading retention is your opinion. You're free to set your browser's default font to whatver you choose. This concept is a good example of a user-controlled GUI. In most browsers, you can also change the default font size and the default background color, as well. I've been doing lots of thinking and reading about a concept called user-controlled design, especially as it's applied to web and GUI design. One of the things that bothers me about many of today's web designers is they insist on using FONT FACE and SIZE tags in their code. Not only does this over-ride the end user's default settings, it causes problems with cross-browser and cross-platform rendering. The web would be a much friendlier and more readable place if web designers would grasp the concept of allowing their end users to change the look and feel of the web site they're viewing, even if it were just changing a font face, a font size, or a background color.
Back in June, I attended a conference in Maryland. There was an in-depth discussion about pervasive accessibility for the web. What this means is that everyone must be be able to read your web site(s), regardless of what technologies they are using, what handicaps or disabilities they might have, or any other barrier that may exist in blocking the accessibility to your site. Thinking past the current crop of web browsers and their many limitations, as web designers, we must start thinking about our sites as pieces of data and information rather than a bunch of pretty pictures with a nice GUI. The future of the Internet will be based on the idea of distributing your information over the Internet in multiple formats, and into many new types of Internet-enabled appliances. The PDA (Palm, Newton, WinCE) market understands this and is working on making their devices even more Internet-savvy. Another market that sees this is the wireless market, which includes cell phones.
The last Peanuts comic strip.
OK, my brain is full. Will have to re-visit this DVD FAQ several times just to take it all in. [via BrainLog]
Browser Tip: If you do as much reading of text as I do online, you'd be smart to change your browser's default font setting to Verdana. On the PC, you'll need to decrease the font size a bit. On the Mac, leave it at 12pt. The Verdana font improves my retention and allows me to easily double my reading speed online. In fact, CamWorld is specially designed to render fabulously with Verdana.
My new slogan "Thinking Outside the Box" has made this year's list of banished words and phrases.
There are some slight changes to the San Francisco CamWorld Reader Get-Together (a.k.a. CamVention) on Thursday. If you plan to attend, please read.
From CHI97 comes a great paper called Intelligent Software Agents vs. User-Controlled Direct Manipulation: A Debate. Read that and think about how we can apply those arguments to web GUIs.
Way too much email to catch up on. Updates coming soon. Probably later tonight.
Play the Monkichi Bingo Game [Shockwave required].
Request: I'm trying to find info about a stuffed monkey toy that came out during the Christmas season in the early 1980s. The TV commercials had a very catchy tune that went something like this "Mon chi chi, mon chi chi, he's oh so cute and cuddly...put your hand on his head, he's really sweet...fun to wiggle his little feet....Happy, happy, Mon Chi Chi." I doubt that's the correct spelling of Mon Chi Chi. And the Monkichi thing above isn't what I'm looking for.
Alice was the first to get me a link. What I really want is the song or the lyrics.
Tara Calishain offers up these lyrics, which I think are pretty close to the actual: Monchichi Monchichi oh so soft and cuddly with your thumb in your mouth you're really sweet love to wiggle those little feet la la la la la la happy happy Monchichi (spastic child in background screaming "I LOVE YOU MONCHICHI!") Monchichi, monchichi, oh so soft and cuddly, with their thumb in their mouth they're really neat, fun to wiggle their little feet! la la la la la la happy happy Monchichi (again with the spastic child)
Monchichi Monchichi oh so soft and cuddly with your thumb in your mouth you're really sweet love to wiggle those little feet la la la la la la happy happy Monchichi (spastic child in background screaming "I LOVE YOU MONCHICHI!") Monchichi, monchichi, oh so soft and cuddly, with their thumb in their mouth they're really neat, fun to wiggle their little feet! la la la la la la happy happy Monchichi (again with the spastic child)
(spastic child in background screaming "I LOVE YOU MONCHICHI!")
Monchichi, monchichi, oh so soft and cuddly, with their thumb in their mouth they're really neat, fun to wiggle their little feet! la la la la la la happy happy Monchichi
(again with the spastic child)
Of course, eBay has plenty of Monchichi merchandise (not the PVC stuff).
Eric S. Raymond talks about the DVD crack and the fight to control DVD piracy.
It's January 3. Why are there still Christmas lights and Christmas trees all over the place? Ugh.
A co-worker loaned me the "Tigermilk" CD by Belle and Sebastian. They have now beat out James as my all-time favorite British pop band.
My hits over the past few days seem to be way up, but the Analog 3 report I just ran doesn't appear to tell me why.
