WebWord

I have a friend who needs some legal / copyright advice. Back in 1972-1973, my friend took hundreds of pictures at rock concerts (e.g., close up pictures of Jimmy Page ripping it up on stage with Led Zeppelin). These black and white images are fantastic. They are his photos taken with his camera. What is […]

I think it would be interesting to be able to easily (and I mean EASILY) rent more stuff. Why own so much stuff? What good is ownership really? Think about it! Renting a car might just be the start. What else can we rent on a very short term basis? It is already done with […]

Today I had a great conversation with Stefan Wobben of Concept7. Although they are located in the Netherlands (or “Nederland”), they face the same usability issues we face. We also agreed that explaining usability is a challenge. By the way, if you can read Dutch, check out the Concept7 usability blog. (The internet really shrinks […]

ACM Queue — “In this article, we detail two examples of sysadmins hunting for the causes of specific errors. In one case, error and informational status messages led our sysadmin astray, whereas in the other the messages may have helped, but only serendipitously. Because systems are so big and complex, individual errors are often reported […]

“Microsoft says that, for optimal video streaming, Media Center users should buy and install a separate wireless network based on the less-common 802.11a standard and dedicate it to the Media Center extender connection. This is likely to add another $100 or so to the cost of the setup. Worse, it will plunge users into the […]

HOT or NOT is in the personals and online dating business now. In the past, you would simply rate people on a scale of 1 to 10 and that would be it. It was just for fun, with no real financial plan except for maybe advertising. Now, however, you can click on a link that […]

Here is part of a message I received after unsubscribing from an email newsletter:
“The following changes have been made to your email newsletter profile. It may take up to 5 business days for your request to be fully processed.”
First, I didn’t know I had a profile regarding this newsletter. I thought they only had my […]

“Family members arguing a point over dinner are more apt, if they have broadband, to “look it up online rather than continue to yell at each other,” said Lee Rainie, Pew’s director.”
I’m glad to hear that other folks do this!
Read more…

Today, in an effort to be simple and clear, I called myself a web site improvement consultant. It actually worked pretty well. The response was positive and I hardly had to explain what I do through Oristus.

“Why does this make flickr successful where Friendster, Orkut, et al fall flat? I believe it’s because flickr’s designers are among the first (I can’t think of others but they surely exist) who have grokked video game design and (more to the point) figured out how to translate it to the web. What does this […]

“While many online shoppers are getting savvier, others are still too naive or ignorant of online dangers and engaging in risky and questionable buying practices. For example, a surprising 21 percent of respondents to a survey conducted in November by the Business Software Alliance and the Council of Better Business Bureaus admitted to having purchased […]

Business Week — “Once we worried about where our food came from. Now we don’t. Once we worried about where our commodities came from. Now we don’t. Today we worry where our manufactured products come from. I’m betting that soon, we won’t. What will matter is how we put the pieces together, how we create […]