From: Gleanings To: candles on

From: Gleanings To: candles on the cake Subject: Gleanings: You say it’s your birthday… OPENING THANG I ordered […]

From: Gleanings
To: candles on the cake
Subject: Gleanings: You say it’s your birthday…

OPENING THANG

I ordered a birthday gift for my husband from amazon.fr the other night, and was amazed at how easy it was. I don’t speak much French, and sure didn’t need to. The familiar comfortable Amazon interface was identical. Even the confirmation emails are identical. Try it yourself.

Many folks wrote me to point out kottke’s permalinks (personal sites are exempt from usability rants, btw). Now it’s time to go after peterme. Come on Peter, you know you love it when people link to you…

DESIGN & IA MATTERS

woo hoo! we love myth debunking. (hannahodge.com/blog)
“Many powerful myths exist for software developers on the role of design, specifically the design of user interfaces. Drawing on 13 years of experience in the field of user interface design, Paul Smith describes and debunks these myths.”
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/us-myth.html?dwzone=us

Design Is Kinky (littlegreenfootballs.com)
http://www.designiskinky.net/

DIK point to this site, asking “Is green the new black?”
http://www.surfacemedia.com.au/
No, gray is the new black, and green is the new orange.

Evolution of Alphabets (rebeccablood.net)
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~rfradkin/alphapage.html

STATISTICAL MATTERS

new pile of stats from nua.ie

Pew Internet & American Life: Americans clued in on dotcom downturn
“Most Americans blame greedy investors and poor business models for the
dotcom meltdown, according to the latest report from the Pew Internet
& American Life Project.”
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905356570&rel=true

Gartner Group: B2B will grow despite economic downturn
“Although the economic downturn will negatively affect the growth of
B2B, Gartner predicts that the global B2B market will still be worth
USD8.5 trillion in 2005, up from USD433 billion last year.”
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905356584&rel=true

Nielsen NetRatings: Travel sites alone in January success
“Almost a third of B2C transactions in the US in January 2001 were
carried out at travel sites.”
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905356585&rel=true

NEWS & COMMENTARY

A Primer in Diffusion of Innovations Theory
“Some inventions ‘take the world by storm’ (archetype: the Sony Walkman). Others seem to fail, lie dormant for decades, but when ‘their time has come’, their use grows quickly, even explosively ”
http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/SOS/InnDiff.html

Global Stock Markets Rally
“Stock markets rallied around the world Monday as many investors judged that the sharp declines of recent weeks had been overdone.”
http://www.iht.com/articles/14801.html

Snooping on the Couch Potatoes
A watchdog group says TiVo isn’t forthright about how much data it collects and distributes on subscribers’ boob-tube habits.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,23132,00.html

Our Data-Driven Economy
Corporate America’s obsession with research and technology is producing reams of data. Making sense of it all isn’t easy – but it’s key to survival.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,22841,00.html

APROPOS OF NOTHING

Matt writes “Nice Diversions, Number 547. Found via rhizome”
http://www.turbulence.org/Works/apartment/index.html

How to dance (designiskinky.net)
I could watch this for hours
http://home.earthlink.net/~zefrank/invite/swfs/navigation.html

beats hostels (rebeccablood.net)
“It’s a familiar enough story: Young university student, bright, adventuresome, desperate to see the world. The only problem of course, was the money worry.
But here comes the twist. Ramon Stoppelenburg, a journalism student at the Windesheim University in Zwolle, Netherlands, decided to finance his trip by setting up a Web site asking people around the globe to put him up for a day.”
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/netherlands010323_web.html

from epicurious
http://www.epicurious.com

RECIPE: PAN BAGNAT