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                WebWord.com Newsletter
              "Usability & the Internet"
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                      List Owner 
                    John S. Rhodes 
                   John@WebWord.com
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October 14, 1999                    Newsletter #33
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Table of Contents

1. The Stench of Evil Users
2. Epinions Going Strong
3. Yes, This is A Short Newsletter
4. What Can You Find at WebWord.com?


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ITEM #1

A new WebWord.com article is now online:
--> http://webword.com/moving/evil.html

The Stench of Evil Users

You are wrong if you think the world is a nice place
full of nice people. You can have faith in people.
You can say that they mean well. You can live in a 
world of cotton candy and happy people. But, there
are evil people out there. And, they want you to
fail. They want your business. They want your money.
To make things harder, what you think is "evil" might
be different than what another person thinks. Now that
I have your attention, what do you really need to think
about? What should you consider in a world where there 
is such a foul wind? 

Take a few minutes to read the article:
--> http://webword.com/moving/evil.html


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ITEM #2

Epinions Going Strong

I'm not going to avoid the truth: I am a fan of 
Epinions. They give me an outlet. They let me rant and
rave about products. And they pay me. You can get paid
to write reviews too, but you'll need to register first:

--> http://www.epinions.com/welcome.html?member=webword

I've been writing about the usability of products at
Epinions. For the most part, I haven't conducted formal 
usability tests on these products. But, I do (informally) 
focus on how easy they are to use. For example, if a 
movie is too long, I'll tell you. Or if a game has poor 
controls, I let you know about it. 

I've written several Epinions since I blatantly 
mentioned them in my last newsletter. I think some of
my Epinions are and useful, so I'll do some more 
promotion again. Here's a list of my new Epinions;

Usability of Unreal (Quake-like video game)
http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-30FB-1261DEC9-3805276C-bd4
 
Usability of Tiberian Sun (real-time strategy game) 
http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-4793-11E641EC-3803EAFD-bd4 

Rubbish, Waste, Trash... Random Hearts (stupid movie)
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-37F3-11636F6B-38029C19-bd4 

Usability of the Microsoft Intellimouse 
http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-6E2A-E57E895-37FD5970-bd3

That's about it for now. Epinions seems to be growing
in popularity now. The number of reviewers has increased
quite a bit recently, and the number of reviews is 
growing too. If you'd like to write reviews of your
own, sign up. I'll sponsor you:

--> http://www.epinions.com/welcome.html?member=webword


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ITEM #3

Yes, This is A Short Newsletter

I've been working like a crazy man. I've been spending
at least 12 hours in front of a computer every day for 
the last several weeks. Oh sure, I'm getting stuff done.

But, it extracts a cost. This newsletter is short 
because I am tired and this newsletter is free. ;-)
I do feel I owe you more, but I don't have much to
give this time around. I'll do better next time. 
Although, I *am* pleased that I was able to write an
article, write up this newsletter, and respond to about
10 emails in the last few hours. 

Oh, before I forget to mention this, I've turned all of
the WebWord.com Interviews into an eBook. You can check 
it out at FatBrain (it is eMatter, which I've talked 
about before). If I understand things right, you'll be 
able to find it on Monday Oct. 18th. It is in Word 2000 
format, if you feel like downloading it (but you'll need 
to fork over cash to do that). If this works at all, I'll
set up an affiliate program so you can earn money from my
work (what a deal). If you want to know more, contact me
please: john@webword.com

That's about it. Be sure to stop by WebWord.com once 
per day for your usability news fix. I update the home 
page every single day! You never know what goodies 
you'll find.