From: Gleanings
To: humptyhump
Subject: Gleanigns: a little bit of everything today
OPENING THANG
Hump day.. I’m holding down my publishing to three times a week. Saner for me, saner for you.
in the blog.. conversation happens! two topics, one on the nature of the blog and one on personal sites, are spurring fine little chats.
http://eleganthack.com/blog/index.html
IA MATTERS
White Paper: Analyzing the Analysts
“Chiara Fox and Keith Instone evaluate the information architectures of the major analyst firms. Find out if these “thought leaders” in the IT industry practice what they preach.”
http://argus-acia.com/white_papers/analysts.html
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a garden of experience design papers. yum.
http://www.parc.xerox.com/istl/members/woodruff/publications.htm
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Less academic is the Human Factors collection, including titles like
“Managing Your Defense Against GUI’s from Hell ” and “Screen Writing: “Brevity is the Soul of Wit””
http://www.humanfactors.com/library/GUIdesign.asp
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while poking around xerox parc, I discovered this, an interesting overview of the makeup of the web (the html version has some of the ugliest clipart known to man)
http://db.cs.berkeley.edu/~woodruff/inktomi/
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Interesting look at video games “as a way to play around with strategies and ideas.” on captain cursor
http://www.captaincursor.com/archive/2001_04_22_blog.xml#3357642
DESIGN MATTERS
continuing to debunk the myth of 800×600
Real-World Browser Size Stats, Part II evolt.org, Site Development
http://evolt.org/article/Real_World_Browser_Size_Stats_Part_II/20/2297/index
and from Human Factors International
“A website is best when it is designed for a monitor resolution that matches the monitor resolution of the majority of your users. This provides a full-screen layout for those who desire to use the full width of their monitor for web pages.”
http://www.humanfactors.com/library/mar01.asp#bailey
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For those who don’t know, it is free to subscribe to emigre magazine if you are in the US. and quite worth it. don’t be fooled by the spartan website, the magazine is delicious, if sometimes obtuse.
http://www.emigre.com/EMaSu.html
NEWS & COMMENTARY
Salon: Time to buy a new computer — but why? (via tomalak.org)
Scott Rosenberg. This year, though, when the alarm went off, something strange
happened: I woke up, took a look around at both my current computer of choice
and the possible replacements, hit the snooze alarm and went back to sleep.
Maybe next year.
http://salon.com/tech/col/rose/2001/04/23/buying_pcs/index.html
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Music Protection Faces Fresh Battle
“The recording industry has threatened a Princeton University computer scientist with legal action if his research group presents a paper at an academic conference this week describing how it is possible to circumvent an industry music-protection system. ”
http://www.iht.com/articles/17931.html
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Online Courses to Improve Teacher Technology Skills
“Teachers seeking to boost their technology skills can choose from a growing variety of online offerings ranging from three-week skill boosting courses to labor-intensive master’s degrees. ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/25/technology/25EDUCATION.html
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Business Travel: Singapore Airlines Introduces In-Flight E-Mail
“For over a year, airlines have been fiddling around with technology and fretting about when and how they’re going to introduce in-flight e-mail and Internet capability on their airplanes. ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/25/technology/25TRAV.html
TECH MATTERS
love it!!!! (via xblog.com)
“Still can’t decide whether to use PHP scripts, Perl CGIs, or Java servlets for your next Web development project? This article will help you decide by providing a side-by-side comparison of the functioning source code of all three languages. The three simple example programs provided take you from the most basic server-side scripts through object orientation to a simple Web storefront presenting product information to a user. Reading this article will give you a good idea of the difference between these three languages, and a better idea of which one is right for you.”
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-sssl.html
MARKETING MATTERS
from one of the cluetrain kids
Gonzo Marketing: Winning Through Worst Practices By Christopher Locke
“This is a serious book. No fooling.
Now right off the bat that has to make you wonder, right? Because most books, especially business books, pretty much take it for granted that you believe that going in. Of course the book is serious. That’s why you bought it. Either that, or you needed an over-the-counter alternative to your regular insomnia medication. Don’t laugh. Recent studies show that seven out of ten business book buyers are really looking for semantic Sominex. And, as Harley Manning of Forrester Research points out in his insightful report – “The Snooze Factor: Sleepy Time in the Management Aisle” – these consumers find what they’re looking for in 82% of all online book transactions.”
http://205.178.173.189/gonzomarkets.com/intro.html
and from another…
Pulp Email: Spring Cleaning, Tarantino-Style By Eric Norlin
“I have received so many badly written, badly constructed, just all around Bad email newsletters as of late that I have reached my personal tipping point (with a hat deferred to Malcolm). As such, I’m about to get viral on your, um, bum.
Eric’s Rules for Writing a Decent Email Newsletter”
http://www.marketingprofs.com/emarketing/pulpemail.asp
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Kottke points to “Pseudodictionary: “this is the place where all of your made up words, slang, webspeak and colloquialisms become part of the dictionary as well. we take the words you use every day, but aren’t in the dictionary, and put them into ours. all you have to is submit them. you’ll even get credit and a link to your website (if you’ve got one). help us grow our dictionary by sending us your entries now! everyday more entries are added, so check back often.””
http://www.pseudodictionary.com/
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Fun picture, though I’m sure it’s not so fun for the residents of davenport, Iowa which has flooded.. again.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Midwest-Flooding.html